Ward has secrets Do the team find out? Can he control it?
by mikkiemakkie
Summary: Ward has secrets. What they are the team don't know. Can he control himself to keep them or is his world about to be turned upside down? Rated K (for now!)
1. Chapter 1

"Someone should go in there and talk to him."

Four sets of eyes turned to May.

"Nah-Uh. I'm not doing it. Not after last time."

"Last time?"

"He's been like this before. I tried to get him to talk and..." May said, trailing off.

"What?"

"He broke my jaw."

Skye looked through the glass window to see Ward, her honey of a SO, throwing hook after jab after cross to the punch bag. This, in itself would not normally cause hushed discussion in the Lab but he had been working out for five days straight and not sleeping.

Coulson was concerned the recent events with Lorelei and May were affecting his behaviour and was hoping he would not have to suspend his best field agent. Fitz was also wondering if Ward's recent encounter of the Asgard kind was the reason for this strange behaviour, as he also succumbed to the Goddess and was struggling with it.

May, however was wondering if Ward's mind was with the woman who had captured his heart. Even though she had told Ward that it was just casual sex and Coulson that she was fine, she was secretly hurting inside. She had harboured a flame for Ward for a very long time.

Simmons and Skye had never seen Ward like this and were just generally worried for him.

"I'll go" Skye said quietly and took a step to the door.

"No!" Shouted May and Coulson together.

It was too late. She had already opened the door and gone into the room. Ward paid her no attention and continued to punch the bag. She assessed the situation, after all, a broken jaw did not sound pleasant, especially not so soon after being shot. Hesitantly she took a step towards Ward.

"Leave." It was short. More of a growl than his usual majestic calm.

Sky turned to look at the others watching them and instantly knew Ward would not open up to her with them watching. Skye flipped the switch that dropped the blinds to the training room.

The knife pierced the wall before she had the chance to turn and look back at Ward. There was a slight pause to Ward's rhythm.

"Ward?"

Jab, cross, uppercut.

"Will you please look at me?"

"Skye, please just go."

"I'm not leaving until you talk to me."

Realising Skye was being serious Ward finally stopped punching the bag long enough to look at her. Skye immediately noticed his knuckles were rubbed raw and were starting to bleed. Not wanting to talk, Ward grabbed his bag and stalked out of the room for a shower. After processing what had just happened Skye followed.

"What happened?"

"Did he say anything to you?"

"Are you alright?"

"That knife made me jump"

Everyone started talking at once trying to figure out what went on between Skye and Ward.

"He didn't break my jaw at least, but he wouldn't even look at me"

6 Hours Later

"Coulson?"

"Ward."

"Can I have a minute?"

"Close the door and take a seat."

"Can I please take a few days Personal Leave?"

"If you can't deal with the fallout of you and May then I'm sorry Ward but that isn't my problem."

"It's not about May. It's very personal to me and I wish to take some time"

"What if I say no?"

"Then you will leave me no choice. I will jump and you will not find me until I want to be found." It wasn't a threat, but Coulson knew Ward well enough to know he was being serious.

"If I say you can go. There is one condition. You have to take Skye with you."

"Coulson..."

"She hasn't been off the plane in weeks and I would like her to get out and have some air without bullets flying at her."

"Fine."

"Where do you need to be?"

"London"

"Why are we in London?"

"Skye" She knew he still wasn't ready to talk so she gave up.

He led her to the nearest DLR station and headed towards the centre of London. At Kings Cross they boarded a train and were soon headed out over rolling countryside towards Oxford. Ward sat staring out of the window. Skye sat studying him from across the table. Now there were no prying eyes to watch them she took one of his badly beaten hands and looked at it more closely. To her surprise he didn't pull it away. She was more surprised to find him looking at her. One look into those deep brown eyes and she could tell he was hurting, she just couldn't tell why.

Seeing Skye's expression, Ward softened a little.

"How much of the first time we met do you remember?"

"All of it. Why?"

"So you remember asking me about my home life and why I joined S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"Yeah..." replied Skye, knowing that Ward had no choice but to answer her questions as Coulson had injected him with a particularly potent truth serum. What she didn't know was how all of this was relevant to why Ward had withdrawn. He turned back to the window.

They got off the train in Oxford and Skye; feeling a little overwhelmed and wanting to ease some of Ward's pain, grasped his hand again. They set off from the station walking over the river and down a dirt track road. After 20 minutes of walking in silence they approached a small number of houses. Ward let go of Skye's hand, reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys.

To Skye's amusement Ward took her hand again and guided her up the driveway to the first house they came to. He put the key in the lock and entered the house.

"Wait here" Ward said to her as he closed the door.

He started towards the stairs.

"Tilly?" he called. There was a loud crash coming from another room.

"This is your house?" Skye blurted out before she could stop herself.

When he called out Skye suddenly realised where they were. Ward simply looked at her and gave her a half smile. "

Grant?" Ward spun around and opened his arms wide to allow the woman who appeared in the doorway to enter them. She did and his head dropped to her shoulder.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

"Needed some time"

There was a cough from behind Ward made the woman jump.

"Sorry Till. I forgot. I had to bring a colleague back with me. Tilly. This is Skye, Skye. This is my baby sister Tilly."

Skye offered a wave before asking for the bathroom. On the way to the bathroom Skye had a nosy around Grant Ward's house. She could not get over how nice it was. When she was finished in the bathroom she opened the door to find Ward waiting for her, finally nursing his beaten up hands with an ice pack. She noticed a change in him already.

"It's getting late, Tilly's already gone to bed. You should take my room. Second door on the left. I'll take the couch"

"Second door on the left. Which one is left again?" Ward let out an involuntary laugh and Skye smiled. He was starting to come back.

"Come on. I'll show you." They reached the door to Ward's bedroom.

Skye spun in the doorway to face Ward, pushing her body as close to him as she dared "You know we're both adults. We could share" she offered.


	2. Chapter 2

Ward stepped closer, so that their bodies were millimetres apart, brushing the top of her head with his chin, he reached behind her and turned the light on.

"I'm sorry about the knife" he whispered, his mouth agonisingly close to Skye's ear. He pulled back. "Good night Skye. Sleep Well" he said as he walked down the corridor.

Coulson noticed the change in Ward the second he and Skye were back on the plane. For starters he could sense tension between them. Obviously something had happened off the 'bus. He hoped he didn't have another Ward/May incident on its way. On the other hand, Ward seemed more relaxed than he had seen him the couple of weeks since Skye was shot.

"Hey Stranger, how was your leave?" Simmons asked as Ward unpacked the few personal items he possessed on the bus.

"It was good. Thanks. How was things round here?"

"Quiet" Ward gave her a rare smile, finished unpacking his things and went to the workout room. He stood in the doorway and looked at the punch bag, while absentmindedly rubbing his sore knuckles.

"I would let those heal if I were you" Fitz advised, wondering if the powerful agent was going to hit him for saying the wrong thing.

"Wasn't thinking about working out. Was just thinking about things."

"What things?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

Suddenly the plane veered and shook everything to one side, bouncing the agents around like it had hit a bad patch of turbulence. Coulson's voice came over the loudspeaker: "Situation room now!"

Five minutes later they were all being briefed by Coulson as to what had happened.

"Twenty minutes ago we received reports of a man fighting."

"That's not new?" Skye pointed out.

"No, you're right. It isn't. What's new is there is five of him."

"Five? Of the same guy?"

"Maybe he's a quint?" suggested Simmons.

"Not when all five are making the same moves at exactly the same time"

"That's new" Ward piped up.

"Which is why we're on our way to find him."

An hour later Coulson and Ward were in the SUV headed out across the Mexico dessert. They reached the spot where the reports were made from. Ward got out of the car first and walked across to, what looked like a park.

"I don't see any sign of him"

The bullet came out of nowhere and hit him in the side. Ward pulled his gun from his holster and awkwardly held it in the direction the gunshot came from, things starting to go a little hazy around him and he dropped to his knees. The next thing he knew, there were five men, all matching the same description, closing in on him. By the time Ward hit the ground there was only one man, spread eagled on the ground with Coulson stood over him holding a night-night gun.

"Ward, can you hear me?" Coulson's face was swimming in and out of focus. He tried to talk but the very act of opening his mouth and inhaling air in order to was proving to be a bit of a challenge. That's when everything went black.

Skye, Fitz and Simmons and May were all waiting in the loading hatch for Coulson and Ward's return. The SUV pulled up and Coulson got out, opened the back door and dragged a handcuffed man out. May, realising this guy was a prisoner and wondering where Ward was, went to aid Coulson. She escorted him to the 'bus's 'cell' and locked him in. Meanwhile, Coulson had walked around the SUV and opened the passenger door. Ward had regained consciousness on the return journey, so Coulson helped him get out. He hefted one of Ward's arms over his shoulder and half carried half dragged the injured man up the ramp. Seeing what was going on Skye and Simmons went to help. They sat him on the Lab table to get a better look at his injury. There was a loud bang and Ward slumped forward, almost sliding off the table, only remaining on it due to the fact Skye had locked her knees around him.

"What did you do?" She asked Coulson, while Simmons still looked a little shaken.

"Hit him with night-night. Now you can do what you need to without him objecting to everything."

"Right, let's get moving then. Wouldn't want him to wake up halfway through."

Simmons took control. After all, she did treat Skye's bullet wound and Ward's didn't seem to be too deep. With the help of Fitz and Skye the bullet was soon removed and the hole left behind sewn up. Coulson added a surprise to the mix by attaching Ward's very own S.H.I.E.L.D bracelet to his wrist. Between all of them they managed to carry Ward to his bunk and took it in turns to check on him.

Ward awoke with a start. He remembered everything that had happened until he got back.

"Easy. Go back to sleep" came a soothing voice.

"How long have I been out?"

"A couple of days. We were worried about you."

"I need to get up."

"No, you need to lie down" Ward summoned the strength to push Skye off his bed and sit up. The pain in his side was immense but he breathed through it. The yelp Skye gave as she hit the floor brought the others running to his door.

"Please leave us." Coulson said.

"I'm sorry Coulson, I shouldn't have been so stupid!"

"It's not your fault Ward. The area looked clear to me as well. Only difference is you beat me out of the car. What you need is rest to I'm placing you on 'plane arrest'"

"Is that like house arrest but on a plane?"

"Exactly like that. To make sure you stay on the plane I have fitted you with a bracelet that will inject you with enough night-night to knock you out for a week should you even enter the lower deck of this plane."

"Coulson"

"That means no working out. In fact, no work. Period."

"Can I at least get out of bed?"

"Sure"

Slowly Ward moved to a point where he could put his feet on the floor. Using the door for support he pulled himself into a standing position. Realising that they had removed his shirt he grabbed one out of the drawer and stumbled into the lounge area.

"Oh look! It's Bambi on ice" Skye snickered.

"I can still shoot you!"

"Please don't!"

Ward was about to open his mouth to tell Skye to shut up when May came over the intercom telling them all to belt in for landing.

"Where are we going" Ward asked.

"We, as in you and Skye are staying here; we as in the rest of us are headed out for a 0-8-4"

"Coulson! What exactly am I supposed to do confined to a plane?"

"I'm sure you will think of something!"

Ward stood at the top of the stairs watching the team, bar Skye, drive off into the unknown. It irritated him to know that he should be out there but can't be due to his own damned fault.

"They shouldn't be too long" he thought, "what can I do? Skye will probably tell Coulson if I do any work." He scanned the room and spotted Skye's laptop computer.

"Skye. Can I borrow this?" he asked lifting it off the table. "Sure. Didn't think you knew how to work them though?" She retorted still feeling a little stung over that night at Ward's house and the fact that they hadn't talked about it. She took the laptop and logged him in.


	3. Chapter 3

The first thing Ward did was log into his email account: 19283 emails.

"Christ" he thought, "It's going to take me hours to filter through this lot"

Slowly he started deleting the 'junk emails' from his inbox. Then he started reading the ones he felt he should read and replied to the necessary ones. Skye watched him closely, seeing him engrossed in the screen. It took three hours to sort through all of the emails, but he finally did it. As Ward moved the cursor to log out of his account a new email popped up.

Sender: NRBW s.h.i.e.l. , Subject: Found these on my old computer and thought I'd share!

Ward opened the email wondering what on earth she had found. As it turns out it was old photographs. There was one of the two of them sparring and one that was obviously afterwards of them holding ice packs to different injuries. Ward continued to scroll.

Skye noticed this shift of action. She saw the natural smile. The one she hadn't seen since he had given her that compliment oh-so-long-ago. So she silently crept up behind Ward to see what had got his attention. She saw the picture of the beautiful redhead and Ward and her heart ached. She knew why he wouldn't share the bed with her and also knew this woman was one in a million. She watched him scroll through pictures of them helping each other with kit and socializing. Then he got to the ones that were just of him. Ward in full tactical gear (Skye felt a sensation she hadn't felt since she'd spied on Ward with those glasses...)

Then came one that made her exhale as if she had been hit in the ribs with a sledgehammer.

"Holy crap! Is that you?" she asked as Ward, taken by surprise (he had forgotten Skye was left behind too), closed the window quickly.

"Yes. It was a very long time ago, while I was at the Academy"

"Where was it taken?"

"During a training exercise I think."

Ward closed the laptop and handed it back to Skye before heading into the kitchen area to make some food. Skye disappeared into her bunk and immediately she started typing away to see if she could bring back those two pictures. The first one was easy to find. The second took a little more doing. But within 10 minutes it was there. Ward had obviously just landed a big jump off something and had assumed the S.H.I.E.L.D crouch position (one knee bent, the other out straight out to the side, opposite hand to bent knee in a fist on the floor and his free hand held a gun by his side). He had clearly just looked up to regain his bearings as he was staring straight into the camera's lens. What struck Skye were his eyes. They were passionate, bold, daring, pretty much the same as they are now. Except in the photograph they were bright blue.


	4. Chapter 4

Skye didn't know how long she stared at the photo of Ward. She was brought out of her revere by the others returning from their 0-8-4 hunt.

"How'd it go?" Ward asked. "

It was a complete waste of time" Fitz retorted, clearly annoyed and disappointed.

"Why?"

"There was no 0-8-4" Coulson explained.

"Oh. Ok then"

A few days later Coulson partially removed the restriction on Ward's night-night band. It now allowed him to work out but he still couldn't leave the plane. Skye had been bugging him to restart training now that Simmons had cleared her to so he was teaching her hand to hand combat.

"It's all very well and good learning to punch a bag, but a bag doesn't punch back" he reasoned with her.

So they started sparring. Ward was holding right back, knowing he could seriously hurt her. But he felt Skye was too so he stepped it up a gear. He taught her to parry punches and use her elbows to great effect. Skye physically struggled with the elbow to elbow work so Ward placed his hands on her hips and manoeuvred her to stand in front of the punch bag. "

Shadow my movements he told her" taking up a position right behind her.

She could feel his hot breath on the back of her neck. It was making her head spin in a really pleasant way. He took her wrists in his hands and started, slowly and smoothly elbow punching the bag. Every breath was making Skye feel weaker and weaker against him. Suddenly the photograph of the redheaded woman flashed in her mind and she pushed Ward off her.

"I think I got it." She told him. "Well let's see shall we? We are going back to hand to hand. I expect you to do better."

Skye took her position and Ward took his. Before Skye knew it she was on her back with Ward sitting on top of her pinning her hips to the floor and restricting her hands above her head. All she could do was stare into his beautiful brown eyes and try not to react. Suddenly Ward got up.

"We are done for today."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Go shower up and I'll be up soon."

Skye left feeling very, very confused. Ward had felt the spark. The familiar rise in his emotion level and in order to suppress it he had sent Skye away. She didn't need to witness what was going to happen next. One fist hit the bag, then the other. Before he knew it he was in a full workout fist frenzy. He had no concept of time, no concept of space. He also had no concept of the spanner floating 3 foot to his left. Hours passed and Skye, wondering where he had got to went searching for him. She found him in the workout room. "

"Ward?" He spun quickly as a spanner went flying at Skye and hit her on the cheek.

As she looked at him she thought she saw the faintest flash of blue in his eyes. When she looked again as he placed a cloth to her bleeding wound, his eyes were as brown as they always were. "

No." She reasoned to herself "A person cannot change their eye colour just like that. I must have that photo on my mind."

"Come on. Let's get that seen to. It looks deep"

"I'm going to start calling the Lab table the ER soon. How many of us have been on this table?"

Ward just chuckled. He brushed Skye's hair out of her face and bathed her cut with cotton wool. It stung so she reached for Ward's hand to pull it off her. He leaned in close and looked her straight in the eyes. There was a mutual recognition of trust flicker between them and she dropped her hand and let Ward carry on tending to her face.

"Ward?" she said questioningly. "Why...?"

"Not now Skye" he said. Trying to convey a tone that said "We will talk about it but not here and not now. You don't know who is listening"

He could see that she was upset as she stalked off out of the Lab. He left it a minute and then followed to go shower up. From the balcony, May came out of the hiding space she was occupying when she heard Ward and Skye enter the Lab. She had heard enough to know that Skye had feelings for Ward. She did wonder if he felt the same for her, and if Skye was the woman he desired."

We've found it!" Fitz and Simmons burst upstairs.

"Where's Coulson?" Simmons asked.

"Found what?" Ward asked her

"The 0-8-4!"

"What about it?" Coulson asked entering the room.

"We tracked its energy signature, a bit like they did in New York, except this time it worked and we haven't been taken to pieces by madmen!" Fitz rambled.

"Ok. Everyone downstairs" Coulson ordered. "Ward, a minute?"

"Everything alright?"

"Everything's fine. But you know I can't let you go."

"I'm fine. Fit as a fiddle"

"Really?" Coulson asked him, while at the same time injecting him using a 'gun' type mechanism.

"Ow. Jesus. What was that?"

"It will help. Trust me."


	5. Chapter 5

Downstairs everyone was crowded around the Lab table listening to how Fitz-Simmons had found the 0-8-4 and were now getting assignments from Coulson.

"May, you're the muscle, Fitz and Simmons, you are tracking the item, Ward..."

"I'm fine"

"Did you have sex with May?"

"Yes." Ward's eyed widened as the shock of what he just admitted hit him and he clamped his hand over his mouth. May looked like she wanted to kill him and Fitz-Simmons simply stood open mouthed.

"Perfect" Coulson chuckled as Ward went awkwardly to the lounge.

"Skye. Go play. Then let him sleep." Coulson added nodding in Ward's direction.

Eyes wide Skye followed Ward to the Lounge.

"Let's Go!"

In the lounge Ward had poured himself a drink to try and calm his nerves. What just happened was a complete loss of control. Losing control could not happen. Things tended to go wrong when he lost control.

"You slept with May?"

"Once or twice. Never on the 'bus though"

"Is Lorelei anything to do with why May won't look at you anymore?"

"No. She could forgive me for that"

"What hasn't she forgiven?"

"Finding out it was just sex to me too and that there was someone else" Skye looked confused, but carried on her questioning, knowing her window was closing to have her questions answered.

"Who was the redhead in the pictures?"

"Natasha Romanov. Also known as the Black Widow. We were at the academy together. We're close friends." Ward suddenly realised why the answers were coming out of him so easily. Coulson had injected him with the truth drug again.

"Romantic"

"Never"

"You seemed so happy together in those photos?"

"We finally had a place we belonged. Met people who were like us. We found a true purpose in life."

Not knowing how much time she had left Sky plucked up the courage to ask the question that had been burning within her.

"Why wouldn't you share a bed with me?"

There was a long pause and Skye feared she'd missed the window of opportunity. Ward moved closer to Skye, put his hand tenderly on her cheek and kissed her. It was the most passionate kiss that either one had ever had. Ward moved his mouth down to the base of Skye's neck before whispering into her skin:

"Because I couldn't trust myself with you."

Skye's knees buckled and she swatted Ward off her. As much as she was enjoying, what up till now was just a dream, she still had questions. She looked directly at Ward and noticed another quick flash of blue in his eyes.

"What?" she let out in an audible gasp

"What?" Ward asked.

"Nothing. So why did you throw that knife and spanner at me? And why did you apologise?"

"Think about it Skye. I've already told you" then Ward's head hit the bar in slumber.


	6. Chapter 6

Knowing that it wasn't her that was the problem in Oxford, Skye fell to sleep quickly that night. She actually dreamed of that trip. Sitting on the train holding Ward's hand, looking at him trying to figure out what his pain was. She felt like now that he had kissed her she understood his pain a little more, because it was the same thing she was feeling. Wanting to be with someone but knowing that you can't be.

Something about that trip was still haunting her though. It was like she was trying to remember a bad movie. Sat on the train, holding hands, talking a little. About what?

"So you remember asking me about my home life and why I joined S.H.I.E.L.D?" Ward had asked her. Why did she feel like she was missing something? Suddenly her dream scene shifted and she was sat in the plane's 'cell', alone with an embarrassed Ward.

"So do you have a wife? Kids?" She asked him.

"No wife. No kids. Do have a sister that I practically raised"

"Why?"

"Parents died while she was young. Grandparents couldn't cope alone"

"So if you have this young sister why did you join S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"I got onto their radar and Director Fury made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

"Got onto their radar? What does that mean?"

"Fury picked up on the fact that I'm a telekinetic and he recruited me." The look on his face when he let that slip was enough to keep Skye quiet. It was the same look he had when Coulson asked him about May.

Skye woke with a start and suddenly realised the pieces all fit together. Knives and Spanners not being thrown by Ward but coming from him, his obsessive workouts, him apologising for the knife incident.

She got out of bed and crept to where she knew his bunk was. It was empty.

"Well there are only so many places he can be. It's the middle of the night on a plane!" she thought.

It seems she didn't have to look much further than the workout area. Ward was working on some skill that she had never seen before. She stood watching him for a while as he performed a perfect handstand, reached behind him with one hand to get his gun and then flip to his feet ready to fire. He noticed her watching him and opened the door.

"Skye. Hope you haven't got any more truth serum. I don't think I could handle another session with you!"

He looked at the seriousness of her face and realised something was bothering her.

"What's up?"

"I think I know why you apologised for the knife. You didn't throw it did you?"

"No."

"If you have this telekinetic ability, why don't you use it when you fight?

"It's not something I have power over, other than to suppress it. The only time I actually move stuff is when I let my emotions get the better of me."

"Which is why you work out so much?"

"Yes. It's also why I got into Fury's sights."

"So why did Fury recruit you if he knew you couldn't control it?"

"To stop me being a danger to other people. He did promise me he would tell no one about this. It's not even mentioned in my file"

"So I'm the only one who knows?

"Yes. And please, Skye, keep it to yourself"

"I will." She promised.


	7. Chapter 7

"Hey"

"Hey Skye. What's up?" Ward asked looking up from his book to see Skye standing in front of him with her laptop.

"I've been researching, 'stuff', online and I may have found something useful" she said in a hushed voice and using stuff to mean telekinesis as she was aware Simmons was making a sandwich in the kitchen.

"Go on" Ward prompted lowering his own voice as well. Skye sat down next to him and showed him some of the research she had found.

"Is this?"

"A detailed way that special people can manage their emotions?" Sky hinted. "I don't know if it is any good but if you're up for it I would like to give it a go?"

"Give what a go?" Simmons asked joining them.

"Wall hopping" Ward replied while Skye tried to look like this wasn't news to her.

"Wall hopping?"

"Yeah. The way agents can scale walls without the need for ropes and pulleys. It's not easy. I once made it to the top of a five storey building before I lost my footing and fell the entire way down. Landed on my face. I was in hospital for months."

"Sounds painful!" Simmons replied not quite believing him.

"Oh, It was!"

"So all I do is look at the feather and it should move?"

"That's what it says, well it says concentrate on the feather and imagine where you want it to move to."

Ward looked at her not sure whether this was going to work or not. They sat opposite each other with a bird feather between them. Ward looked at it and he tried to zone out everything else. All his focus was on lifting the feather off the floor and have it float there before lowering it back to the floor. That was Skye's idea. Levitate before movement. A noise in the lab broke his concentration. It was a good job too. They had forgotten to close the blinds. It wouldn't have been a good thing if Ward had managed to float it and someone had walked by. Skye also realised this and got up to close the blinds. For good measure she locked the door too. An hour later Ward still had not managed to float the feather.

"Are you taking me up a creek with this?"

"Not intentionally" she replied "try again tomorrow? It does say it could take time for genuine people to master it"

"Genuine people?"

"Yeah. 99.9% of all people who claim to be telekinetic are fakes. They use trick feathers and wire systems. Not that I'm calling you a fake or anything"

"Skye"

"Yeah?"

"Stop talking. So tomorrow. Same time?"

"Same place?"

A week later Ward and Skye were locked in the workout room when he managed to finally float the feather. To Skye's surprise his eyes turned blue. It wasn't a flicker. They stayed that pure, clear shade of blue that was in the photo the entire time the feather was in the air. The second Ward broke concentration, the blue started to fade back to their original brown. Ward was shocked it had finally worked. He tried it again and again and again. With each attempt he managed to hold the feather in the air a fraction longer than before. Someone tried the door, breaking Ward's concentration. Having been caught with the door locked twice in that week Skye had taken to working out her body and creating a sweat while Ward worked out his mind. The theory was that they could say it was for an uninterrupted training session. The door handle shook again. Ward got up to open it but Skye stopped him.

"I'll open it. You start punching and don't look at anyone!" She had noticed that the blue was taking longer to fade each time and was still obvious in his eyes.

She opened the door to Coulson. He was suspicious of the two of them. They had been seen off to one side with a laptop, talking in hushed voices and locking the workout room door. He really hoped they weren't having sex. "

The door was locked?"

"We wanted to work out without being disturbed."

Ward had put his earphones in before he started punching the bag, but hadn't turned the music on. He knew that he could get away with ignoring Coulson for a minute or two. He still didn't know why Skye had told him to do it, but they were in this together so he had to trust her. He just kept punching and punching, not altering his rhythm as Coulson would pick up on pauses. Skye appeared in his line of sight and looked at him. She started talking to him. He pretended not to hear.

"What?" he nearly yelled

"I said Coulson wants to talk to you" she nearly yelled back

"What? I can't hear you!" Skye walked forward and pulled his earphone out of his ear, checking that his eyes were back to normal in the process.

"She said I want to talk to you both" Coulson said from behind him.

Ward pretended to jump a little and turned around.

"Hey!"

"Hey. So what are you two doing in a locked room for four hours every night?"

"Working out"

"With the door locked?"

"Didn't want to be distracted"

"Ward. You don't get distracted?"

"I do" Sky volunteered, looking sideways at Ward.

"Are you and Skye having sex in here?"

"No!" They said together.

"So what are you doing in here?"

"I've been teaching her to throw knives. People kept walking in and getting a trim they didn't ask for" Skye smiled in agreement

"Alright then, get back to it" Coulson said as he left the room, more suspicious of them now than ever. He was certain that they weren't having sex, the cock and bull story was suspicious.

"Now that Coulson has gone do you want to keep training? Maybe you could teach me how to throw a knife." Skye asked Ward

"No."

"What do you want to do?"

"I want to kiss you." He replied. Skye closed the gap between them and kissed him.


	8. Chapter 8

Within the month Ward had managed to keep the feather airborne for half an hour, as well as move it where ever he wanted it to go. He had also started practising being able to move it with breaks in his concentration, so that he could talk to people at the same time.

Ward and Skye were sat in the lounge, Skye was sat at the bar on her laptop, Ward was reading his book on the sofa. May was piloting the plane, Fitz and Simmons were in the Lab and Coulson was in his office keeping an eye on Ward and Skye.

He was still suspicious of them, even though they had stopped locking the workout room door. He was watching their interactions, looks between them to try and figure out what on earth was going on. He was watching Ward read, except he wasn't turning any pages and was smiling. Then Skye stopped typing at her computer, closed her eyes and leaned her head back. It was like she was about to have an intimate moment without anyone touching her. Coulson heard a bang and changed the screen he was looking at. When he looked back at Ward and Skye, she had left and he was reading again.

Ward had long since stopped reading. All he could think about was Skye and how much he wanted to kiss her. He remembered that night in the workout room. He could still taste her skin in his mouth and feel the curve of her neck on his lips. He noticed Skye had the feather tied up in her hair. So he focused all of his attention on the feather. It came out of the loose braid without her knowing. He manoeuvred it to her ear and started tickling it, knowing it would distract her. When she had swatted it away for the fifth time Ward moved the feather slowly and purposely from her ear, down to the base of her neck and across the back of it, where he moved it side to side. Skye had stopped typing and started to react to this assault of her senses. There was a noise from below. It sounded like Fitz-Simmons new project had blown up. This break in concentration was all Skye needed to gather her thoughts, pick up the cushion she was sitting on and launch it at Ward.

"I think it's time we moved onto a pencil or something"

Ward just smiled at her.


	9. Chapter 9

"Ward?" shouted Coulson.

"Yeah!"

"We need to talk."

"About?" Ward asked, thinking he was in trouble

"I think it's best if we talk in my office" Ward followed Coulson into his office and took the seat that Coulson had gestured him to sit in.

"I don't want you to overreact, but."Coulson paused for a moment.

"But?" Ward prompted, getting a little concerned.

"They want you back at Phys Acc"

"What?!" Ward exploded, standing up, sending the chair flying.

"I don't think the principal is happy about it either, but, it's an order, passed down from Fury himself, so neither of you can escape it."

"Fury can stick that order up his..."

"Ward! It's the open day. Try to have some fun."

"I'd rather be tortured with a nail gun"

"Plane lands at 0800. I recommend you get some sleep."

* * *

"Coulson, can't we go too?"

"Please? I've never been to Phys Acc"

"I just want to compare it to Sci Acc"

"Fine. But we stick together so no one gets lost. May are you coming?"

"Sure. It's been a while since I was there"

They walked through the double doors into a cavernous atrium, filled with floor to ceiling banners. There was one of Ward, which was similar to the photo Skye had saved to her computer, one of Natasha Romanov and three of them both together in different poses.

"Wow" Fitz gasped looking around

"That is actually quite hot" Simmons admitted, blushing slightly.

"I bet he loves those!" Skye quipped sarcastically.

"Yeah, they both try and burn them every year they have to come back here for this. They haven't managed it yet. It's got so bad the security team has to guard them all day" May told them, with a slight smile.

"But why those two? I mean, how many agents come through here every year? Simmons asked Coulson.

"They are the most decorated agents to have come through the Academy. Between them they hold every single record available. No one has ever come close to their times, or ability since they left. Fury calls them his poster people. Which is why one or both must be here on open day."

"Tour's starting" May interrupted, Coulson looked up and shepherded his team to the back of the tour group.

They were taken around the language rooms (each of the taught languages at the Academy having its own room), the tactical rooms, the music rooms (well you never know when you will need to sing your way into a building, their tour guide told them) and the Arena where the agents in training learned their combat skills. This was Skye's favourite room, as, at the other end there was a large structure that the students had dubbed 'the Colosseum'. It had a smooth wall for about 20 feet then had hand and foot holds like on a climbing wall. They went another 10 feet into the air, then there was a narrow ledge that ran to the top zig-zagging from one side of the wall to the other. To finish up there was a cargo net with a large red circle above it. From the Arena they were shown the outdoor obstacle course and the student's living quarters. These surprised Simmons and Fitz. They thought that field agents in training would have better quarters then they did at Sci Acc but they didn't. It was just the same. Their tour guide took them back to the atrium and showed them the board. On it were a list of names and scores for each of the taught areas.

"This board shows what position you are in your class in your final year here."

"What does the top spot get?" One guy, wearing a wifebeater top and sunglasses asked, smirking.

"Usually their choice of assignment and half a say in their code name. We are nearing the end of the tour, however if you would like to follow me I will take you to the demonstration part of the open day."

"Have you seen Ward yet?" Simmons whispered to Skye. She shook her head.

They were led into a room and took a seat. On the wall in front of them were the faces of 50 people.

"Now everyone has taken a seat I will give you an outline of the demonstration. These 50 people are security here at the Academy. These are only select agents. The rest are actually protecting us." He gestured to the board and continued.

"The game is like capture the flag. A team is sent in to capture the S.H.I.E.L.D flag that is flying high and proud in the atrium. These guys job is to stop them, and either shoot them so they can't walk or capture them and take them to the principle."

"You shoot them?" One girl asked horrified.

"Our security team primarily use neuro-toxin darts on students. They replicate the pain of gunshots without the mess. They also carry real bullets to protect from outside threats. Today those bullets have been confiscated. The team capturing the flag has to get it to the top of the colosseum. " Their guide clicked his clicker and the face of a man and Ward came onto screen.

"This is the team." He pointed to the man and continued "This is Hawkeye, master at arms and has a deathly accuracy."

He moved his pointer to Ward "Agent Grant Ward, code name unknown except by a select few. The rumours are that Director Fury classified it for some reason. You will have noticed his face on the banners outside. This is because he is incredibly talented and holds approximately half of the records here at S.H.I.E.L.D, and has done for the last 10 years."

He clicked to the next slide, which were individual pictures of Hawkeye and Ward fighting people.

"These two are seasoned agents, with access to all of this facility. For the purposes of this exercise, their clearance has been removed, so if they want access to an area they will have to hack their way in. You will hear them refer to hear other by amusing names. Last year we had names like pumpkin and sweetheart. Security forces do not know who they are looking for, until they see the agent 'running' in full S.H.I.E.L.D tactical gear. I will now take you through to mission control where you will observe this mission. I personally recommend watching the facility monitors, not the agent monitors. You see more action that way. Please refrain from talking while you're in there."

"How they hell do they expect a team of two to win against 50?" Skye heard a small girl in pigtails ask someone who was obviously her brother.

They were led through a door into a dimly lit room, covered with monitors. Knowing that their friend was going to be part of the exercise Fitz, Simmons and Skye fought for front row seats. Coulson and May sat behind them. Ward and Hawkeye were sat on a table being briefed by another agent.

"Who's running, who's tech?" He asked them

"I'm running." Ward replied, looking at Hawkeye, who nodded his approval.

"The exercise will begin once Agent Ward here steps out of this room." The agent prepping Ward announced to the group. Ward walked to the door, noticed his team looking at him with apprehension and gave them a quick smile. He reached the door and turned around.

"Has anyone got a lighter?" he asked the group. A guy at the back did and handed it to him. "Thanks!" He left the room and the agent announced over the microphone "Mission is a go, go, go."


	10. Chapter 10

"Got a plan?" Hawkeye asked Ward through the microphone.

"Distract and Conquer" Ward's voice came back loud and clear in the room.

"I'm into the system, so when you're ready"

The group was watching the feed from the atrium. They couldn't see Ward, so they all turned to watch his feed. From what they could see he was stood on the side of the atrium looking at the flag.

"Fire" the group in the room heard a guard shout as he ran over to the blazing banner in the atrium.

"Watch Ward's feed" Coulson whispered to his team as the rest of the room turned back to watch the atrium feed.

They saw Ward grab the flag, fold it up and put it in his pocket. No one else did. After the drama was over the atrium was exactly the way it was before the fire until one of the guards noticed something not quite right.

"The flag! It's gone!" he shouted and started mobilising his team to find Ward. There was a murmuring starting in the room as people whispering to the people next to them. They had not seen the flag vanish. As a group they turned back to Ward's feed and all they saw was blackness. They heard bangs and thwacks as he hit various knobbly bits but after around 30 seconds they saw daylight as he hit the ground, landing cat like on his feet.

"Target acquired" he said as he set off for the arena.

"Copy that. Take the third door to your left and it will lead you to a corridor that will lead you to the stairs."

Ward ran for the door that Hawkeye had pointed out to him. Hawkeye had managed to unlock it and Ward sailed down the corridor to the next door. It was still locked.

"Hey! Princess! Open the door!" Ward demanded, taking a step back and looking directly at the camera.

"You'll have to hold on twinkle toes! I can't find the lock on the computer!"

Ward heard a faint noise a couple of corridors away.

"Huston, we have a problem. Multiple bogies closing in."

"I see them, six bogies. Copy that. Six bogies. Will be with you in 30 seconds. You'll have to do a Romanov special on them"

Ward looked into the camera again before turning around and replying "Are you kidding me?"

Ward took pellets out of his pocket and threw them down the corridor, just as the first guard entered. There was a flash and smoke filled all of the cameras in Mission Control.

They could only hear the blows of fists and grunts of pain.

"How's that lock coming?" Ward asked him.

"Unlike you I did NOT get sent to Sci Acc for 6 months. I'm working as fast as I can"

Suddenly Ward's camera cleared and he was in a different corridor.

"What did you do?"

"Opened the door!"

"How?"

"One of the guards succumbed to my way of thinking" was all Ward would say.

The smoke in the corridor cleared and the room saw one of the guards strung up to the ceiling by his ankles, hands bound to his waist, the second guard was also strung up to the ceiling and trying to loosen the noose that had appeared around his neck. The other four were all in varying degrees of consciousness on the floor. The guard nearest the door was completely out of it and slumped up against the wall, left eye propped open with a weapon they could not see.

Ward kept running. He was at the stairs and up them in no time. He got to the door of the hall he would need to cross to get towards the Arena and Colosseum

"There are four more bogies in the hall."

"Copy that. I see them" Ward replied peeping around the door. They came closer to the door, Ward waited, and he waited. Suddenly they were close enough.

Smack! The door hit the guard right on the nose. Ward was halfway across the hall before the other three realised what had happened. When they did they raised their guns and started firing at him. The bullets hit the ground around him. He made it through the door, closed it and used the automatic machine gun he had acquired to rig it. The second anyone opened it they would be shot.

He carried on running.

"Five more bogies, ahead on the right" Hawkeye told him consulting the cameras.

"Other than a knife, I'm out!"

"You didn't set off with a knife?"

Ward's camera panned down to his leg where there was a small blade sticking out of it. He pulled it out and put it into his weapons belt.

"Ok then. Next left, right, right, left and straight on to home-base"

"Crap. Busted" Ward said and started running.

He made it to the arena without getting caught by his pursuers. He stuck the knife in the door in a way that would slow them down opening it.

"This is too easy!" He said, standing in the large open space, that had no obvious dangers.

"I agree. Proceed with caution."

Ward too two steps forward when the door rattled behind him.

"Hawkeye. Switch to infrared and tell me what you see."

"Crap!"

"What?" asked Ward, taking his headset off and pointing his camera directly at his face. The effect, in infrared was disturbing.

"Laser grid between you and home-base. Put your set on back on and I will guide you through it." Ward put his set back on and the laser grid was in full view.

By the time the guards had made it through the door they could see Ward doing some pretty astonishing gymnastics in the middle of the room. Not actually thinking about it they ran straight across the room, setting off the laser grid (which, upon touching, gives a shock that is enough to incapacitate you for up to five minutes!). The guards dropped where they stood.

Ward lost his balance on the next flip and landed on one leg and the other nearly touched the laser. There was a collective gasp in the room as Ward came perilously close to losing the exercise. When he had both feet on the floor he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Nearly there buddy! Handspring about 3 feet in front of you and about the same high and you're out."

"Copy that"

After the handspring he only had to contend with a smooth flat wall more than twice his height and the rest of the Colosseum.

"How exactly do you expect to get to the top of the wall?" Hawkeye asked him.

"This is why I am running and you are tech, peaches"

"Of course."

Ward ran as fast as he could manage towards, not the Colosseum, but the side wall of the arena, jumped into the air, planted his foot on the wall and used all of the momentum to push him to the top edge of the smooth wall. He managed to get his fingertips onto the ledge and hoist himself up. He wasn't one of only five people to have got to the top for nothing!

He climbed the handholds in double time and started on the narrow ledge. More guards had arrived and were trying to shoot him down. Realising that their weapons were not powerful enough some tried to run through the unseen laser grid and mate the same fate as their colleagues. The rest could only watch in disbelief as Ward scaled the cargo net, took out the flag, connected one end to the Colosseum and then the other before punching the big red circle.

The big red circle was a sensor that set off an alarm right the way through the building (It went off so rarely that this was seen as a special occasion). It signalled that someone had made it to the top. Today, however, it signalled the end of the exercise. Two men versus the world and they won!


	11. Chapter 11

"How will he get down from there?" Another girl on the tour asked.

"This schools motto is 'We fly without wings'. Work it out!"

Her eyes widened as she saw Ward on the monitor dive off the top of the 50 foot obstacle. There were various screams and gasps from members of the tour group as the ground became closer and closer. Suddenly, Ward stopped, three feet off the ground, righted himself and turned his camera off.

"If everyone would like to follow me to the atrium, the tour has now concluded. There will be student, staff and agents to answer any questions you have."

They all followed him out of mission control, discussing how they felt about the demonstration, through the white room and back into the lobby. Not needing any questions answered Coulson allowed the team to wonder around and look at the information about the Academy. Skye was studying a picture of the Hawkeye using his bow and arrow.

"Hey, I'm Aaron" said a male voice in her ear.

"Skye" she replied smiling at him.

"So you thinking of applying or something?"

"Or something." Aaron was starting to creep her out .

"That demonstration was pretty awesome wasn't it? I mean. Security had no idea of any of it did they!"

"I guess not"

"He was amazing was that Ward guy."

"Yeah"

Simmons came running over to Skye with Fitz.

"Skye. We have just found _the_ best picture in the world!"

"What of?"

"Twinkle toes" replied Simmons using the name Hawkeye had called Ward.

"You two applying for S.H.I.E.L.D's Physical Academy? You look like science nerds" Aaron asked with a snotty tone to his voice.

"Actually, we're..."

"Everything ok?" May interrupted. One of the conditions of allowing them into Phys Acc was if they pretended to be applying.

"You're applying?" He asked May. "Aren't you a little too old to apply for this place?"

Coulson saw May crack the knuckles of her right hand. She was ready to hit this clown. So he went over.

"May, behave. Did you find everything you wanted to know sweetheart?" he asked Skye, putting his arm around her shoulders.

"You brought your dad with you? To a school where they teach you to kill and spy on people?"

"My dad accepts everything and anything I want to do in my life" Skye told him with an obnoxious smile. Their conversation was ended there by mass cheering, whoops and screams.

Ward had just entered the atrium, and as he was the hero of the hour he was proving very popular.

"It doesn't harm that he looks the way he does either" thought Skye. He fought his way through the sea of people all wanting to ask him questions or congratulate him on the exercise to where Coulson and the rest of the team were stood.

"Oh my God! He's coming over here." Aaron said, losing the snotty composure he had just been using and now sounding like a small child meeting his hero.

Skye took two paces towards Ward to give him a high five, tripped and fell straight into him. Ward, his attention gained by someone asking him if the knife in his leg hurt, was bowled to the ground entangled in Skye's limbs. The rest of the team went to pick them both up.

"You guys want the proper tour?" he asked them, dusting his legs off

"Sure"

"Ok"

"You mean there's more?" were the replies from the team.

"I'd love to come!" Aaron answered.

"Sorry. This tour is full" Ward replied.

He took them through the grounds that they did not even know belonged to Phys Acc and told them stories about what happened in various parts. He took them to the lake and lake house and he also took them to where the agents-in-training had their downtime. It wasn't nearly as sophisticated as the one at Sci Acc but it had a bar, dance floor and pool table. The team ordered drinks from the bar and agreed to have one night enjoying themselves before returning to the bus.

* * *

Ward and Skye were having a drink at the bar. He looked around to see where the others were. Fitz-Simmons were dancing (or what they thought was dancing) and May and Coulson were playing pool. This was his window. He took Skye's drink and put it on the bar.

"Follow me" he whispered in her ear, "I have something else I want to show you."

He took her hand and pulled her out of the room.

They walked hand in hand to the stairwell and climbed right up to the top and up onto the roof. The roof was restricted access with a retinal scanner. Ward bent down and let it scan his eye, his clearance having being reinstated.

He covered Skye's eyes with his hands and led her to the edge of the roof.

"Are you ready?" he asked her.

"Yes"

He lifted his hands off her face and she simply stood there, stunned. The sun was going down over Phys Acc and it was simply beautiful. They stood there, hand in hand, watching the it.

"So you were taught to sing?" she asked him, turning her back on the view.

"Yeah. But we don't talk about that. It's the one think I was terrible at."

Skye started to sing. She wasn't actually that bad.

"_There's still a little bit of your taste in my mouth__  
There's still a little bit of you laced with my doubt  
It's still a little hard to say what's going on"_

She ran her hand down Ward's face

"There's still a little bit of your ghost, your witness  
There's still a little bit of your face I haven't kissed  
You step a little closer each day  
That I can't say what's going on

Stones taught me to fly  
Love taught me to lie  
Life taught me to die  
So it's not hard to fall  
When you float like a cannonball"

He took her in his arms and put his forehead against hers.

_"There's still a little bit of your song in my ear__  
There's still a little bit of your words I long to hear  
You step a little closer to me  
So close, I can't see what's going on_

Stones taught me to fly  
Love taught me to lie  
So come on courage, teach me to be shy  
Cause its not hard to fall  
When you know that you just dont know"

Ward joined in

"Stones taught me to fly  
Love taught me to lie  
So come on courage, teach me to be shy  
Cause its not hard to fall  
When you float like a cannonball

" They finished together.

"Is it really a necessary skill to have?"

"Unfortunatley. Yes"

She turned around in his embrace to look at the view again. It was almost as stunning in the dark, as you could see all of the city lights reflected in the nearby lake. He tightened his arms around her and rested his chin on her shoulder, while she leant back into his chest. They stood this way until Skye gave an involuntary shudder.

"Cold?" Ward asked her?

"A little"

He removed his jacket and draped it around her shoulders.

"Want to go back in?" he asked her.

"Not just yet. I want to stay here for a little while longer"

It was the most romantic thing she had ever experienced. Amazing views with an amazing man. She didn't want to let that go so soon.

* * *

"Where the hell have you two been?" Coulson demanded, obviously pissed off that they had disappeared.

"It was a little hot and stuffy in here so we went to get some air"

"Of course you did." Coulson scoffed noticing Skye was wearing Ward's prized leather jacket.

Fitz and Simmons came running up at that point

"Can't find them anywhere!" they told Coulson, not noticing Ward and Skye stood there, well, until Coulson stared at them.

"You're there. Where did you go? Where did you come from? How long have you been standing there?" Simmons asked without taking a breath.

"Went out for air apparently" Coulson answered for them, eyebrows raised.

"Where's May?"

"Still looking for these two!" Coulson stated. "I have empty room keys for you guys tonight. I want you, in your own rooms, by 1am" He continued, looking at Skye and Ward to emphasize his point.

"What was all that about" Simmons asked on the way to their rooms.

"He's got it into his head that we're having sex" Ward retorted.

"You mean you're not?" Fitz asked, slightly sceptical, eyeing up Skye who was still in Ward's jacket.

"NO!" They exclaimed together.


	12. Chapter 12

'Click'

The sound of a door closing woke Coulson from a very pleasant dream, involving one cellist. He had got a room near his team as he, at the moment, suspected some of them having sex.

He got up and dressed and peeked out of his own door, to see Ward creeping around a corner. Leaving it a few moments Coulson followed him and was surprised when he saw Ward gaining access to the roof. He decided to wait to see if anyone else arrived. He waited ten, fifteen, twenty minutes and no one did so Coulson headed up to the roof. When he got there he saw Ward sat on the barrier wall, legs dangling over open air, staring out to space. For the first time in months he looked relaxed. Coulson went to stand beside him, he was curious to see what Ward was staring at.

"What are you doing up here?" He asked the younger agent.

"Just thinking."

"That's dangerous"

Ward gave an involuntary laugh and continued to stare. Coulson noticed there was a hint of blue in Ward's eyes, but figured that it was the light of the moon, as it was a crystal clear night.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Stuff."

"I'm not going to get much out of you am I?"

"Sorry Coulson, It's the training. And if you ask people, I'm emotionless."

"You're not emotionless. You just don't let people see it. That doesn't mean they don't exist."

"They exist alright." Ward murmured breaking his stare and looking down towards the ground.

"Skye?"

Ward tilted his head and looked at him.

"What do you know?" he asked, no emotion or accusation to his voice.

"I know that you're different around her. The way you look at her sometimes. You will go to any length to protect her. You also let her wear your jacket earlier, which ask anyone is a very big deal. You may not be having sex with her but, it's all there."

"What's all there?"

"Agent Ward. You're in love" Coulson remarked, finally putting the pieces together.

"Love!" Ward scoffed.

"You were sat here thinking about her weren't you?" Ward blushed a little. "Well, just don't hurt her." Coulson finished.

"I don't plan on it."


	13. Chapter 13

'SMASH'

The glass panel between the workout room and the Lab smashed.

"Sorry guy's" Skye shouted

"Everyone ok?" Ward asked looking at where the knife landed. Right between the head of Fitz and Simmons.

"What happened?" Coulson asked as he ran into the room after hearing the crashing of the glass.

"Minor mishap with a knife" Ward told him as Coulson surveyed the damage to the glass.

When Coulson had finished looking at the extremely large hole in the glass, he turned to Ward and suggested:

"Give her a gun, it might be safer."

"Will do" Ward agreed.

Between them they cleaned up the broken glass, temporarily repaired it with self adhesive cellophane and then went back to work.

"He has no idea it was your fault?" Skye asked Ward, having seen Coulson and him talking.

"No. He told me giving you a gun would be safer."

"I think going back to pencils would be safer" Skye recommended.

"Hey. I moved the knife didn't I?"

"Yeah, but you nearly killed Fitz-Simmons with it!"

"And the problem is?"

"You were aiming for me!"

* * *

Ward and Skye had moved their training to the lounge. He was teaching her to tie knots. You never knew when a well tied knot would come in useful. He started with the basic figure of 8 knot, before moving onto the more complex noose knot. Skye couldn't quite grasp the way to tie it, so Ward stood up and moved behind her chair, took her hands in his and helped her tie it. After a few tries in this way Skye felt she could do it on her own.

"Can I tie you up with it?" she asked Ward. "You know. Practise on humans and all that."

"Sure. I won't resist while you practice"

Skye fastened a noose knot around one of Ward's hands, then moved around his back and tied it to the other hand with another noose knot. Deciding she wanted to have a little fun she pulled him onto the sofa and sat on his knee straddling his lap while she used her new knot tying abilities to fasten him down. When she felt he was restrained she got up and went back to the bar and poured herself a drink. Simmons came in from the lab and joined Skye, not noticing Ward immediately. When she did finally notice Ward tied to the sofa she questioned Skye about it.

"What is Agent Ward doing tied to the sofa?"

"He was teaching me how to tie knots."

"That makes perfect sense. But why is he tied to the sofa?"

"Why not?"

For the next hour, Simmons and Skye spent talking and playing battleship, until May came in. She immediately noticed Ward tied to the sofa.

"Why is Ward tied to the sofa?"

"Knot tying session."

"How long has he been like that?"

"Hour or so."

"Have you checked those knots are secure?"

"No"

"Well you should" May told her before leaving for a workout.

Coulson was watching as Skye approached Ward. He knew Ward had broken the bonds holding him to the sofa within minutes of being restrained. He also realised May knew this as well and was setting Skye up. Before Skye knew what was happening she was bound by her wrists and tied to the balcony.

"Time for the first lesson." He heard Ward say to her, before walking off.


	14. Chapter 14

"I didn't think it would be so big" Skye said, as the team gathered around the bottom of the Great Pyramid at Giza.

"Duh! It's a pyramid. What else did you expect? It's like an ancient wonder of the world."

"Well let's split up and track where this anomalous result came from." Simmons suggested.

Fitz got the seven dwarves out of the case and started flying them around the giant structure. Skye and Simmons were monitoring the screen where the data was being collected, Coulson was filling in the Hub on their status and May and Ward were scouting for clues. It was just after dawn and the sun wasn't up very high yet. It was still hot enough. May and Ward saw an opening in the side of the pyramid, so they went in to investigate. Fitz saw them go into the pyramid and sent one of the dwarves in after them, but before the tiny device could fly into the crevice it had gone.

"Guy's." Fitz said.

No one paid him any attention.

"Guy's" he shouted.

"What?" was the response.

"We have a problem"

"What is it?"

"May and Ward have gone."

"Gone? Gone where?"

"They went through an opening and before I could get a dwarf in to guide them _poof _it vanished."

"What vanished?"

"The opening."

All four of them looked at the pyramid in front of them.

* * *

They heard a grinding noise behind them. They turned around to see what it was and to their horror they saw the opening disappear. They were left stood in the dark, musty pyramid with no water and no way of getting out. There was a sudden stream of light as Ward snapped his torch on.

"Well this is cosy" He said as he flashed the light around the narrow corridor.

"Find the trap release."

"What trap release?"

"Where there's a hidden door there is usually a release for it"

"You watch _way_ too many Indiana Jones movies"

"Will you just look?"

"Yes Ma'am."

They spent 20 minutes looking for something that would release the door, but the inside of the pyramid was as smooth as the outside.

"Stay here or look around?" May asked Ward.

"I'd like to have a look around"

"Really?"

"You're not scared are you Agent May?" Ward asked teasingly.

"No."

"So come on then!"

Ward led May into the depths of the pyramid in search of, well, anything.

* * *

"It can't just have disappeared. It must be a door of some kind" Fitz was saying as he was running his hands over the spot where the opening had been.

"State the obvious much?" Skye asked him

"The question is how do we get it open?"

"I don't know."

The four of them stood looking at the wall. You couldn't even see a line where the opening could be.

"It is the right place isn't it Fitz?" Coulson asked him.

"I left snoopy here so that I could find it again. I'm sure".

"The answer might be in the hieroglyphics" Skye suggested, running her hands over the detailed drawings on the side of the pyramid.

* * *

May and Ward hadn't found anything useful on their tour and had returned down the passage to the door. It was still blocked, so they sat down, legs across the corridor, facing each other.

"Are you still that pissed at me? I said I was sorry that I hurt you."

"I wasn't pissed about it just being sex, or that there was someone else. By the way, it's becoming plainly and painfully obvious who it is."

"What were you pissed at me about if it wasn't that?"

"That you couldn't tell me about it."

"Would you really have been ok with it? Sleeping with me knowing my heart was elsewhere?"

"Probably not and we will never know. But to hear it like I did. That's what hurt."

"I am so sorry."

"It's as hot as Hell in here"

"How do you know?" He asked.

"Know what?"

"If it's as hot as Hell. Have you ever been to Hell to make the comparison?"

"I think I'm _in_ Hell." She told him throwing a pebble she had found at him.

There was a splutter from the torch and it went out.

"No, now I'm there!" May said.


	15. Chapter 15

"May"

"Mmm"

"Still with me?"

"Just about."

As the sun climbed higher and higher the heat became unbearable inside the pyramid. Both agents were dripping with sweat and Ward had taken his shirt off to try and wring it out. It didn't work, but deciding it would be cooler with it off he threw it to one side. May was starting to drift in and out of consciousness.

Meanwhile outside Skye, Coulson, Fitz and Simmons started working on the runes of the Ancient Egyptians. They worked, tirelessly, for hours.

"It's a puzzle" Skye said.

"No it's not. It's confusing"

"Fitz, is right. These Hieroglyphs don't make any sense."

"Get into the van, NOW!" Coulson ordered, hand reaching for his weapon and concealing it by his side, as a black SUV approached them. The other three did not question this and dove into their van to hide. The SUV came closer and eventually stopped right by them. A man in military uniform got out and spoke to Coulson.

"What are you doing here. This is restricted space."

"My name is Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. I am here to investigate and anomalous reading that may have caused a plane to crash 100 miles away from here yesterday."

"Goddamn Americans. Always pushing your noses in where they don't belong."

"I assure you sir this is not about Nations. S.H.I.E.L.D is about protecting, not just America, but the world, from unseen circumstances. This is why we are here."

"Well you had better leave if you don't want to be killed. There are rebel's forty miles out and closing." The mystery man told him, before getting back into his SUV and leaving.

Coulson banged on the side of the van.

"It's safe. You can come out."

"Thank God! What was that about?"

"I'm not sure but we have to move fast. Fitz. I need you to figure out how to fly the 'bus, Skye, Simmons. We are running out of time."

"Me, fly the bus? Are you insane?"

"We have rebels closing in. They will be here within the hour. We don't know what state May will be in when we get to her, if we get to her in time. You're a rocket scientist. Figure it out!"

Fitz ran off to the 'bus and started reading the manual as fast as he could, leaving Simmons, Skye and Coulson to rescue May and Ward.

"It's a puzzle." Skye said again.

"What?"

"These lines and markings aren't hieroglyphs at all." She said pointing out the marking she meant. "They are a map. Look for a stone that sticks out."

Five minutes later Coulson found the stone.

"Move it up four clicks"

Coulson did. He didn't expect the stone to move, but it did, and easily.

"Two to the right" Coulson continued to move the stone following Skye's instructions and when they had finished there was an opening in the side of the pyramid. Simmons and Coulson went in to try and find May and Ward while Skye stayed outside to reopen the door if it closed again.

Coulson noticed the temperature in the pyramid and his concern for the two missing agents grew. They quickly found May and Ward slumped up against the walls of the corridor. Ward was conscious, but weakening by the minute. May was completely out of it.

Simmons picked Ward up and helped him stumble out of there, before they exited through the opening Ward noticed a flash of orange, but being in the state that he was he dismissed it. Coulson picked May off the ground and carried her, fireman style to the plane. Just as Coulson deposited May on the lab table he saw multiple SUV's break the horizon. They were out of time.

"Skye. Call Fitz, tell him to get this thing in the air. NOW!" he told her as he closed the cargo doors.

The plane shook violently and then stopped. Coulson was hoping Fitz had figured it out, or they were all dead.

Simmons was removing May's soaked clothes and Skye was helping Ward drink a bottle of water. He was pale and all of his hidden battle scars were visible. She noticed one on his hand. It was four small squares spaced out evenly in a row.

"Skye, go help Simmons. I'll take care of Ward" Coulson told her.

Skye got into the lab to find May naked on the table and Simmons was trying to get something to cover her pride. When May was covered they started making diagnostic data on her. They noticed her temperature was high. In fact it was that high Skye went to go get all of the ice she could find while Simmons soaked another blanket in the coldest water she could get her hands on. They needed to give her fluids, but until Fitz had the plane in the air they couldn't risk missing the vein with an IV.

Coulson, having assessed Ward and realising he was in no immediate danger, he was just severely dehydrated went to help Fitz get the plane airborne.

Soon the 'bus was back in the air and Simmons had placed and IV drip into May's arm, and for good measure, she placed one into Ward's too.

They had to re-soak the cooling blanket on May multiple times within the first couple of hours to try bring her temperature down, when it was back to normal they removed the cooling blanket and placed a regular one over her. Ward was just sitting reading a book, waiting for the drip Simmons made him have to finish, when he noticed Skye looking at him.

"What?" He asked her.

"Nothing" she replied

"You have the look of someone who wants to ask me something but don't know how."

"The scar on your hand. How did you get it?"

Ward looked at the scar Skye was talking about. It had faded as his skin had regained its colour. Simmons had actually managed to put his IV right in one of the squares.

"Nat stabbed me with a fork."

"Why?"

"Because he stabbed her with a spoon first" came May's voice from behind them.


	16. Chapter 16

Over the next couple of weeks the team were called to multiple instances where en electro-pulse was used to crash planes, cars, even a boat. They never occurred at the same time, which led the team to believe it was only one device. There had been issues with the stock market, electricity surges and power cuts. It wasn't in one spot either. It was all over the world. Every time the team got there the only evidence they could find was faint readings of the pulse.

There was a bright light and an almighty bang from one of the wings. The 'bus started diving 50,000ft, headed straight down.

"Brace yourself for impact" May's voice came in loud and clear over the intercom.

Coulson fastened the seatbelt on his office chair, Fitz and Simmons fought their way to the Lab belts, and Ward and Skye raced for the doors to the Lab from the workout room.

*Crash*

The lab fridge had become loose and had crashed into the door. There was no way out for Ward and Skye. Except through the back into the cargo hold. Using all of his strength Ward held onto the punchbag by locking his legs around it, using his arms to tie the skipping rope they had been using around Skye. It wasn't much but it may just mean her surviving the crash and not. Together they managed to climb their way to the rear exit door. Ward opened it and pulled Skye out. Next to the door was a survival pack. He fastened a rope he found in it to the bull ring they used to secure cargo, pulled Skye out of the workout room, undid the skipping rope and tied her to the bullring.

"Can't you try float it or something? Get the nose back up?" Sky asked holding onto him so he wouldn't bounce around as the plane went down.

"It's a lot bigger than a knife!"

"Focus. Don't let anything distract you. You can do it" Skye told him.

Ward looked at her, closed his eyes and focussed harder than ever on the nose of the plane. It worked, in a fashion. The decent started slowing down a little at least as the nose pulled up slightly.

Debris started flying and a bolt cutter clipped Ward on the shoulder. Skye was also finding it more and more difficult to hold onto him. Every time she hit the side of the plane she lost a little of her grip. He suddenly opened his eyes wide, they were bluer than they had ever been, his expression one of horror as he realised what was about to happen. The plane hit the deck, sparks flew as electrical equipment was ripped to shreds, glass shattered, the fridge managed to make its way through the Lab door and take out the punchbag and most of the workout room. The cargo door disintegrated and disappeared. Skye felt Ward slipping out of her grasp.

"Ward!" She screamed as he was thrown to the back of the plane and to Skye's horror, out of the now nonexistent Cargo door.

The plane finally came to rest and everything stopped moving. The items that had been airborne fell to the ground. Skye struggled with her restraint trying to get to Ward. She reasoned he had to be seriously injured, if not dead. Unfortunately for her, even in difficult circumstances, and as she knew from their 'training session' Ward knew how to tie a knot!

* * *

Coulson undid his seat belt, made his way downstairs and broke into the cockpit to check on May first as she was nearest.

"You ok?" he asked.

"I'm fine" was her reply, even as she wiped a smear of blood from her forehead. "I don't know how, but I managed to land it relatively normally, with the exception of the landing gear failing"

"The nose pulled up?"

"Enough to guide it into landing rather than plummeting nose first to a fiery death"

"Come on. We'll go check on the others"

Coulson helped her out of her seatbelt and they made their way the Lab. When they got to the balcony Coulson saw Fitz-Simmons safely strapped in and appeared only to be suffering from minor injuries. Simmons had been hit by debris and was bleeding profusely from a wound to her lip. Fitz appeared to have been hit by something heavier and broken his leg as a result.

"Where's Skye and Ward?" he asked his two geniuses.

"They were in the workout room" They tried to make it in here but the door got blocked."

Coulson paled. He knew there was no strapping in the workout room. Which meant that Ward and Skye were most likely seriously injured. He burst into the room expecting the worst but no one was there. He thought he heard something from the cargo hold.

"Help!" It was very faint. But it was definitely there.

Coulson fought his way through the upturned room to the rear exit to find Skye tied to the bullring. She was very pale and shaking but otherwise unhurt. He saw the knots and recognised Ward's handiwork.

"Where's Ward?" he asked her.

She looked at the space where the cargo door had been and Coulson realised that by tying Skye up he had run out of time and as a result had been blown out of the door with half the cargo in the bay.

He cut Skye free and met the others in the Lab.

"We need to find Ward."

"What happened?"

"He didn't get to a belt in time. It appears he got thrown from the plane"

"What?" Simmons shrieked.

* * *

Ward had landed with a thump. Rolled a few times and found his legs pinned under a small(ish) piece of the cargo door. He set to work freeing himself. It was a slow process but he managed to get one leg free. The weight suddenly lifted and he could move his other leg. Then two pairs of hands were reaching for him to pull him up off the ground. He could see that they were talking to him, but being thrown from the plane had left him with concussive ear syndrome. He couldn't hear a thing, which, fortunately for him, only lasted a few hours! Other than that he, much like the others, escaped without severe injury.

The plane was another story!


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: To answer your questions Pornoy SP (and for any other people wondering how the hell Ward survived the plane crash...) the plane was on the ground when he was thrown from it and he used his 'special skills' to slow himself down (without realising it of course)!**

It was eight weeks before the 'bus was ready to fly again. In those weeks the team had been busy trying to find out what had happened to their plane. They had looked over weeks of satellite footage and, as of yet had no answers. They were back in the 'bus and were flying to the latest catastrophe. A mine had collapsed in Malaysia. They suspected the electro-pulse they had seen at every scene would be present there as well. They were an three hours out and Skye was studying the satellite image of the incident.

"Woah, Skye go back." Ward told her. He had noticed something on the satellite image that recalled a distant memory. "Can you zoom in on that?" He asked her.

"What have you seen?"

"A flash, a memory"

"You're not making any sense." She told him as she zoomed in on the spot where he told her to.

"Now go back 30 seconds." She did as he asked.

The bright orange flash was more pronounced than ever.

"I saw an orange flash when Simmons helped me out of the pyramid" He explained. "I didn't think much of it, 'cause I wasn't exactly with it, but could it be linked?"

They spent the rest of the flight pulling satellite footage they had already seen a million times to look for this new lead. They found an orange flash at every single one of the scenes. Ward starting pinpointing the locations of the flashes and their corresponding destruction.

"We seem to be dealing with a long range weapon" he noted as he placed the final pin,

"You two have been busy!" Coulson commented as he came into the Lab to tell the pair to buckle up for landing.

"We've identified signature and pinpointed the origin of each attack." Skye told him.

"Yeah, it's not good".

"Tell me when we land."

* * *

The team congregated in the Lab to hear what Ward and Skye had come up with. They found no flaw in this explanation, except it did not identify the weapon used, or who had used it. Then Coulson remembered something else about the first attack.

"What if, those rebels weren't rebels?" he asked the group.

"Buyers?"

"Could be. They could have used the plane crash to test it out before buying it."

"But why turn up at the pyramid?"

"To collect."

"I saw that flash _inside_ the pyramid. That secret door would be the perfect place to hide something, especially if people don't know what they are looking for."

"We still don't"

"We better go and look at this mine. See if we can get any more clues. Ward, Skye, stay here and keep working on this. See what you can come up with."

* * *

"I think I've got something" Skye said a couple of hours later.

"What?" asked Ward. He'd hit multiple dead ends.

"Now we know the locations that the device was set off, I cross referenced dates with passport control. This guy" She turned the computer to show him "was stamped through immigration control _days_ before each attack, leaving _hours_ after."

"Could be a coincidence."

"Every single country Ward."

"Look into his background, you know the drill. Where he lives, financials.."

"..arrest records, known associates, education history, parents names and places of birth?" She finished.

"You got it!"

By the time the team had got back they had a partial profile of their suspect.

"Good work guy's" Coulson said to them, a little shocked they had managed so much in so little time. "How do we find him?"

"That we don't know."

"Seems there are only select few who know where this guy lives and they would die protecting that."

"He isn't registered as living in any country, although he has a South African passport, he doesn't appear on electoral roles, council property registers, nothing."

"He certainly knows how to hide. I should leave you two alone to work more often!"

Skye and Ward looked at each other before turning back to Coulson.

"We managed to track where one of his bodyguard's hangs out." They said together.


	18. Chapter 18

Ward and Skye were sat in a bar in LA. To the untrained eye they looked just like any other couple. They were sat next to each other and Ward had his arm around Skye. Ward was nuzzling on Skye's neck and she was tilting her head back to give him better access.

"I see him" Ward muttered.

"Me too" She said looking in the mirror and seeing their target at the bar.

"Now!" Coulson told them through their concealed earphones. He didn't like the plan but he didn't see what else they could do. Surveillance on their target had shown that he liked white girls, which ruled May out and Simmons didn't have the ability to lie. It also had to be Ward to make it look convincing. Coulson was too old and Fitz was also too inexperienced.

_Slap_

"What the hell was that for?" Ward shouted at Skye.

"I know you're sat here thinking about your ex." She screamed back hysterically.

"No I'm not"

"That's why you just whispered _her_ name?" Skye shrieked.

"Lola is a friend. She was never my girlfriend."

"Whatever, I'm done!" She said pushing him off her

"I deserve better than you anyway!" he shouted after her as she stalked to the bar.

Ward made a big display of leaving the bar. He made his way around the side of the building, where he met May. Together they watched what was going on through the video feed Skye was wearing.

"Hey. Are you ok?"

"Yeah sure. I just had a fight with my boyfriend"

"I saw. He really thinks about his ex that way?"

"She was a pretty woman."

"Can I buy you a drink...?" The bodyguard asked Skye, pausing to get her name.

"Skye"

"That's a pretty name, for a pretty lady"

Skye feigned blushing.

"You are so sweet" She told him.

The bodyguard lent closer to Skye and whispered to her:

"You deserve better than him."

Skye sat flirting with their target until it came to closing.

"You wanna go somewhere a little more private" She asked him in the most suggestive way she could manage, holding her hand out for him to take. He took it and she led him to the alley beside the bar. He pushed her up against the wall and started running his hands up her thighs, while he kissed her neck. To May and Ward he looked like a hungry bear devouring it's prey, but they pushed it aside and worked quick.

"Do you want to shoot him or do you want me to?" May asked Ward, knowing, even though he wasn't showing it, he was peeved.

"You do it." He told her.

* * *

"Wakey wakey!" Coulson told the bodyguard, throwing a bottle of water over him. May had shot him with a night-night gun, and between the three of them they dragged him to the plane. Skye, feeling a little dirty since the guy had had his paws on her, went to shower.

"Where am I?"

"Secure containment facility"

"You don't know who you're dealing with, you bastard"

"Of course I do. Jermaine DeFleur, native of France. Moved to South Africa when he was five with his parents who decided they wanted to run a game park and hotel. When you were 18 you went to study at UCLA, where you were an average student and graduated around the middle of your class, no, wait, the exact middle of your class. Single, no previous serious relationship. Do you wish me to continue?" Coulson read from the bodyguard's file.

"Ok so you know a bit about my life. What do you want from me?"

"I want your boss."

Jermaine just laughed. This interview was going exactly the way Coulson thought it would, and right on queue Skye walked in, wearing a short, somewhat revealing summer dress.

"Ward has fixed Lola's flat tyre. She's safe to be driven again."

"Thankyou, Skye."

"YOU?" Jermaine shouted, recognising Skye instantly.

"Me." Skye replied.

"Coulson, I have the Director on the phone for you" Ward said, knocking and entering the 'cell'.

As there was no actual phone call from Director Fury, Coulson watched Skye and Ward in the interview room. They had an unusual tactic. Ward stayed in Jermaine's focus and Skye was wondering in the shadows, occasionally touching Ward in a very familiar way, a brush to the shoulder here, a hold of the hand there. Combined with her clothing it was just enough to make Jermaine crazy. He stood up and rushed at Ward, Ward being quick to react had him pinned up against the wall by his throat within seconds.

It was not what Coulson was expecting them to do (he expected Ward to be the silent one in the background and Skye to ask the questions) but he could not deny that it was effective. They had got Jermaine's boss' name and a location of his residence. What they would find there he didn't know.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N:This one is for you Salkri Kachemench! Happy birthday! Hope you enjoy!**

Skye and Ward were headed around the outside of the suspect's house a few days later.

"You mean to tell me, you're not pissed off."

"No."

"You seem it."

"Why would I be pissed that you used your body to gain an advantage over someone? We've all done it."

"What?" Skye asked stopping dead, realising what Ward had just told her.

"Skye, come on." He said waving her on.

"You're telling me that you have used your body to get information?"

"Can we talk about this later? We need to get into that building somehow, _without _being seen."

"Just use your body. Or shall I use mine? To have some strange man's hands running down my body, through my hair. Hip lips touching me..."

"Skye, stop"

"Well answer my question."

Ward spun around, looped his arm around Skye and pushed her against the wall.

"Yes, Skye, I have used my body and the prospect of sex to get information out of a woman."

"How many times?" she asked angrily

Ward simply cocked his head and looked at her.

"We need to get this mission done." He told her as he released her.

"Seriously how many times have you done it?"

Ward felt angry with Skye, after all, she was the one who let that creep touch her, look at her and kiss her in ways Ward could only imagine doing, and he was the one, as her backup and SO, who had to watch. He wanted to kill that guy. But he kept his emotions in check, didn't make anything move and didn't let his hurt show on his face. Now Skye was bringing it up again _and_ spinning it round on him. He felt the fire rising. He heard a noise behind him and saw Skye fall to the ground unconscious, the head of the nearest stone statue at her feet, smeared with her blood.

"Skye?" He asked in a shocked whisper, appalled at what he had done to her.

He crouched down to check that she was still alive and upon finding a pulse, picked her up, threw her over his shoulder and carried her out of there.

"Base. We have a problem." Ward radioed the 'bus.

"What's the issue Twinkle Toes?" Simmons asked using her favourite code name for him.

"Something hit Skye, she's unconscious, but alive. I'm bringing her home. Prep a bed for her."

"What about the mission?"

"I'm going to have to abort it. Can't take Skye with me to do it, and I'll need her help when I get in anyway."

"Copy that!"

* * *

Skye was soon on the 'bus in the new state of the art medical centre (with the number of injuries the team get Director Fury thought it would be a good idea for them to have this). Ward was being debriefed by Coulson in the Lab.

"I don't know what happened Coulson. We were talking, suddenly she stopped talking, I turned around and she hit the ground. The only evidence of something having hit her was a stone statue with blood on it."

"Calm down Ward, it wasn't your fault."

"But we failed the mission"

"We can go again. You managed to get in and out without being detected, so we are a go for a second try."

"We'll need a new plan. They will have seen that statue by now"

"She'll be ok. She's in good hands" Coulson reassured Ward, thinking that it was his feelings that were affecting him.

"I know" Ward replied going into the workout area.

* * *

"That's 108 punches in 90 seconds" Simmons had told Coulson nodding to Ward, as he came down to the lab for an update on Skye.

"He's obsessive punching again?"

"Yes. He's been punching like that for the last five hours! I'm worried!"

"Me too, and the only person who could snap him out of it is unconscious."

"Wait, isn't there one more person who could?"

"Who? And how do you know this?"

"There was a picture at the academy of Ward and this redhead. They looked pretty close; I mean there was a picture of her kissing him on the cheek at what seemed to be Graduation"

"Redhead you say?"

"Yes."

"Romanov. Why didn't we think of it before!"

* * *

"We will be landing for supplies in five minutes" May told them over the intercom.

Ward fastened his seatbelt in the workout room (another idea of Fury's, you know, to stop people flying out of the back of the plane!) and sat there staring into space winding and unwinding his hand strips, not realising that they were getting a little bloody from the repeated punching. The plane was soon in the air and everyone was gathered in the Lab, except Simmons who was trying to keep Skye in the medical bay.

"He's been like this for a few days now" Coulson told Romanov as she watched Ward quick punch the bag for 30 seconds before starting on rounds.

"He was like this a few months ago, but we dropped him in England for a few days and it knocked it out of him for a little while" Fitz added.

"Ok. What triggered this?" Romanov asked Coulson.

"The girl. She got hurt in the field and he's been like this since"

"He's seen plenty of women get hurt in the field, me included. What aren't you telling me?"

Knowing that what he was about to discuss was incredibly private he sent May and Fitz out of the Lab and onto the upper deck.

"He loves her, he doesn't quite accept it yet but he does." Coulson told her when he was certain they were alone.

"And you think this is the reason he's doing this?"

"What else could it be?"

"I'll talk to him. See what I can do. Would you please get me some ice for his hands?"


	20. Chapter 20

Coulson went to get some ice and Romanov entered the workout room and lowered the blinds, knowing things could get a little crazy. The others didn't need to see Ward crazy. The hand weight came out of nowhere, but having been here before and having her reaction speed she easily ducked it.

"You need to stop punching that bag, Grant"

"What're you doing here Nat?

"Your friends were concerned about you. They didn't know what else to do. Apparently you broke May's jaw the last time she tried to talk to you in this state. What did you hit her with?"

"Fire extinguisher" Coulson returned with the ice pack and passed it through the door to Romanov. She moved around the room and into Ward's eyeline.

"Coulson thinks you're punching out your love for this girl who got hurt." She continued moving closer to him. "But he's wrong isn't he?" she asked finally getting close enough to him to take his hands and hold the ice pack to them.

"I did it" Ward confessed, voice hoarse and looking into her eyes, and for the first time in the 13 years she had known Ward, Romanov saw tears in his eyes, and she knew that he blamed himself. She put one hand around the back of his head and pulled it onto her shoulder. He sank to the floor and she went with him, keeping his head on her shoulder. The emotion he had been feeling since he had hurt Skye broke and he was crying into Romanov's shoulder. It was around half an hour before he could explain further; after all, he could talk to Romanov because they knew all of each other's dirty little secrets.

"We were fighting. She'd seduced a man to get information and she was asking me if I had ever seduced a woman for the same reason. She didn't like the answer"

"So what happened then?"

"I don't know. I guess I lost it and hit her with the statue."

"Did you hit her hard?"

"Hard enough to knock her straight out without much of a sound"

"It's not your fault" She repeated

"It is. I hit her"

"You didn't mean to."

"My mind controls it, so somewhere I must have wanted to."

"Don't go there. I have never seen you beat yourself up over a woman before. She's special to you, I can see that. I also see that you would die protecting her. So why would you want to hurt her?" She asked him.

They just looked at each other, he put his head back on her shoulder and, as she started stroking the side of his face he fell into a deep sleep. He woke up a couple of hours later when the plane hit turbulence. Apparently Romanov had fallen asleep too and had also woken with a start.

"Feeling better?" She asked him, getting to her feet.

"A little."

"Well, I have something that will cheer you right up!" She took his hand and led him to the upper floor of the 'bus to the lounge. She brought over the most delicious looking homemade cheesecake and put it in front of him.

"Is that..." Ward started

"Grandma Ward's cheesecake, all the way from the United Kingdom." Romanov finished for him, handing him a fork.

"You went home?"

"Yep. Which reminds me. Tilly says she wants her flick knife back."

"I'll bet she did." he replied with a grin.

He broke off a piece of cheesecake and put it in his mouth.

"mmmmmmm... I am so glad Grandma taught Tilly how to make this before she passed! Want some?" he asked her, breaking another piece off and feeding it to Romanov.

"I brought you something else from home I thought you might enjoy" She said to him swallowing her cheesecake and pulled a beautiful chess set out from under the table they were sat at.

"You didn't?"

"Yeah. You wanna play?"

Skye, who had been released by Simmons was watching this interaction and felt her heart break a little. She knew that he was telling the truth when he said him and Romanov weren't romantic (he didn't have much choice but to tell the truth did he?), and that they were just close, but she realised that they were closer than any two people she knew that weren't sleeping together.


	21. Chapter 21

It was a full week since the "incident" before Simmons declared Skye fit to try again. She was the only one who could access the computer servers located in the basement. Coulson, fearing Ward would freak out again and end up having a breakdown sent Romanov in with Skye. Fury had told her to take some 'down' time, so she asked Coulson if she could stick around and help. May would be running cover fire and backup should they need help. Ward was to stay in the van with him and keep Fitz-Simmons safe. They had altered their approach, due to the fact that they didn't know whether Skye's blood had been detected and the security bolstered.

Skye was being really, really quiet on the approach up the cliffs with Romanov. She didn't know what to say to this agent, who was closer to the man of her dreams that she ever felt she could or would be.

"You ok?" Romanov asked her.

"Yeah."

"You keeping up?"

"Just about!"

They creeped nearer the house and got in through the basement window Skye and Ward had originally headed for. Skye watched Romanov sliver through it like she was a cat and followed. They found themselves in a store room with guards patrolling outside. Now all they could do was wait for the shift change.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Romanov asked her again.

"Yeah! Why do you ask?"

"Because the guys tell me you're the chatterbox. The one that doesn't stop talking. But you barely say two words to me."

Skye looked at the floor.

"We're stuck in here for the next couple of hours. Why don't we get to know one another a little." Romanov suggested.

"Why are you and Ward so close?"

Romanov smiled, a rare, genuine smile before answering "We met at the academy. In the first year we were nominated as training partners. It's rare for a male and female to be paired together but our skill level was too well matched and higher than everyone else's so they didn't really have a choice. Of course everyone thought we were having it off, but it was never like that. He was like a brother I never had."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We were very similar at the academy. We were there for similar reasons. Train and work for S.H.I.E.L.D or be killed."

"What?"

"That's a story for another day"

"So what happened then?"

The first holiday we were talking about making plans. He told me he was going home to his grandparents, I said I was going to be staying at the Academy. I didn't have a home to go to."

"So he took you home?"

"Yeah. It was weird at first. His grandparent's treated me like a Russian spy, which before S.H.I.E.L.D, I was, but they didn't know that. It wasn't until Ward told them that I didn't have a family that they took to me. From then I was part of theirs.

"Like a sister." Skye pointed out, relief starting to spread through her body.

"Just like a sister." Romanov agreed. "Of course his grandparents never knew what we were really doing in America."

"What did they think you were doing?"

"They thought Ward was studying languages at Berkley, and that I was studying Computer Forensics."

"Did Tilly know?"

"You know about Tilly?

"Yeah. We met."

"Yes Tilly knew the truth. We've trained her in martial arts since she was 8, just in case something goes wrong and someone goes after her."

"It was an accident. He didn't mean to hit me." Skye blurted, needing to get the other thing that had been bugging her for the last week of her chest.

Romanov froze at what Skye had just said. Did she mean what Romanov thought she meant?

"You know?" she whispered.

"Know what?"

"Blue eyes" Romanov used to indicate Ward's 'special skill' instead of actually divulging it.

Skye simply nodded. Skye described what had happened to her that day as Romanov listened (to a story she already knew but she wasn't going to let Skye in on that), Skye hadn't even told Coulson the truth, knowing that it could reveal Ward's biggest secret.

"Now he won't even look at me" Skye finished looking at the floor again.

"The guard's have gone" Romanov said, moving to the door.

"If you want him to look at you again, you will have to make him. We are built from the same cloth. We are both heartless killers, which is how I can get under his skin and he gets under mine. Emotions don't come easy to us and when they do we have difficulty processing them properly, because we compartmentalizs absolutely everything." Romanov advised Skye as they crept the way down the corridor to the server room. Romanov picked the lock and let them both in. Skye turned the light on as Romanov closed the door.

"Holy crap!" they both said in unison.


	22. Chapter 22

The room was filled with computers. Floor to ceiling, row upon row. While Skye was busy searching through the files on the computer for something important, Romanov was looking around the room. She found a table covered in technical drawings. She saw one for an electro-magnetic device. It could be what had been used to cause all of the tragic disasters over the world. Not wanting to leave it in unknown hands Romanov rolled it up and placed it in her jumpsuit.

"Oh my God! I've found it" She heard Skye whisper.

"A small circular object? Electro-magnetic?"

"Yeah. It's all here!"

"Download it, delete it and let's get out of here." Romanov told her. While Skye was busy doing that Romanov, deciding she didn't have time to go through the rest of the papers rolled them all up and wrapped the one she already had on her around them. She placed them all her jumpsuit. They were just about to leave when she noticed a file on the edge of the table. It was marked 'The Covenant', so for good measure she picked that up too.

* * *

"Coulson, you are telling me that we have a new threat who thinks it's funny to knock planes out of the sky?" Fury demanded over a video conferencing call.

"Yes, Sir. I am. We think they took us down because we were tracking them."

"How serious is this threat?"

"From the document Romanov took it seems like they want to destroy the world, Sir"

"Hmph. Romanov. I will deal with her later. I told her to take some downtime, _not_ go chasing after some lunatic that wants to send us back to the stone ages."

"Director. For Romanov, that _is_ downtime."

"If this is as serious as you say it is, you better keep her 'till we a have a handle on things."

"Yes, Sir." Coulson replied, shutting off the video call.

The Covenant file proved to be more valuable than Romanov realised. It didn't have locations or planned attacks, or even names of members, but it did have the outline of the group's activity and their agenda in it.

The plans she had acquired correlated with the data Skye had collected. From the information it seemed that only one device had been made, and seen as though Romanov and Skye had taken all or their instructions and calculations to make another, the team felt fairly certain that they only needed to find the one. Fitz and Simmons were having a field day with the plans. According to them the technology that was being presented was still a theoretical principal.

"Clearly it's no longer theoretical" Coulson told them. "This thing is bringing down planes, boats, totalling cars. It brought us down remember."

"We know. But the person who designed this is a genius"

* * *

"What are they doing?" Simmons asked, watching Ward and Romanov work out. They were performing martial arts moves, except they were side by side and moving slower than a snail.

"It looks like Tai Chi" Skye said.

"Isn't that furniture moving?" Fitz asked. Skye almost inhaled her drink laughing.

"That's Feng Shui" Simmons explained, as a light bulb in the workout room exploded.

* * *

Ward hadn't done Tai Chi for years. It was easier in pairs, or groups as you coordinated your movements to work together, therefore slowing each other down and relaxing the breathing rate. Romanov had suggested it to try and relax him. As they performed perfectly executed manoeuvres Ward felt a lot of tension leave his body. He felt his muscles relax for the first time in months. He was just starting to think he ought to do this more often when he caught sight of Skye watching him. He looked away as quick as he could without being obvious. He felt the guilt of hurting her rise to the surface again.

*BANG*

The light bulb exploded, spilling shattered glass everywhere, jolting Romanov out of the slow, methodical movements. It was at that point Ward realised something was bugging her too.


	23. Chapter 23

"You going to tell me what's wrong?" Ward asked Romanov as they sat playing chess while flying to an incident in Nepal.

"Nothing" was the reply, with a smile that was a little too bright.

"Check mate"

"What? Already?"

"Exactly. What's wrong?"

"You talked to Skye yet?" Romanov asked changing the subject.

"No."

"Going to?"

"I'll get round to it."

"Whatever. I can tell you miss her."

"Are you going to reset the board or am I?"

They reset the chess board and spun it around so that they were playing using opposite colours. Coulson had noticed the pair, while being themselves while on assignment, were unusually quiet in downtime. He knew that Ward still blamed himself for hurting Skye, and that they hadn't talked about it. At least he had stopped the punching. It was either that or they were planning mischief, which was always worrying.

* * *

When they arrived in Nepal, they realised that this wasn't a Covenant incident. The damage was too significant to have been from an electo-magnetic pulse. In fact, the village looked like something big had been running through it. They were there simply to find out what had caused the damage and essentially cover it up.

Original thoughts guided them to believe it was the Hulk, but satellite imagery didn't show anything large and Green passing through there. In fact, their intelligence put Bruce Banner in Malibu with Tony Stark, so they doubted that it would be him.

"I have something here!" Skye shouted, climbing over rubble to get to a wall, where there was a large, dried out, purple scale.

"Eww, gross" she squirmed as she picked it up using some tweezers Simmons handed her and put it in a specimen jar to look at further back in the Lab.

They found multiple scales around the scene and decided, seen as though hit had disappeared for now that they would follow its trail that lead to the village.

They stocked up at the plane with necessary equipment and supplies, Coulson didn't want a repeat of Giza on his hands. They set off hiking. Ward and Romanov were bringing up the rear. This was a worrying notion for Coulson. Ward and Romanov together at the back of the pack was a danger sign.

Sure enough, within minutes there was a scream from Simmons, as she dropped her pack and ran as a Lizard popped its head from underneath Simmons supplies.

"Ward, Romanov. I want you to lead." Coulson told them. Keeping them in his sights was a much safer option. He could at least watch them and try head off trouble.

* * *

It took four hours to reach their destination and what had caused the destruction in the village was apparent. They found a nest that had obviously been lived in for quite a while. There were animal bones scattered across the floor and tucked in between two rocks was a vivid purple exo-skeleton, similar in texture to a snake skin. It was 10 feet tall and had FOUR legs. What it was they couldn't tell, but it was obvious that it wasn't coming back here.

So they set off on the four hour trek back. They still had a few hours of light left, but the heat was cooling off a little. Coulson still had Ward and Romanov out front. Suddenly Ward stopped and used his arms to halt the rest of the team.

"Nat don't move" He told her, concern apparent. She froze in her tracks.

"Why?"

"Androctonus Scorpion"

Romanov looked at her left shoulder to see the world's most deadly scorpion crawling up her arm. She must have picked it up when she brushed by some bushes.

"What do we do?" Fitz asked, turning to the others.

"We can't touch it. If it stings one of us we'll be dead in minutes."

As the others were debating the best way to remove the rearing scorpion off Romanov, Skye saw Ward give a quick glance over his shoulder to see who was watching and then he narrowed his eyes in concentration. They turned blue and the scorpion landed on the ground and scuttled off.

"It's nice to know he's still practising, even if he won't talk to me." She thought.

"It's ok. The scorpion's gone."

"What? How?"

"Big stick" Ward replied holding up the stick he had pretended to use to remove it. "Ran off that way"

"Let's get back to the plane. We have hotel reservations tonight, it's an hour flight to get there and then we need to find this thing in the morning." Coulson told them.


	24. Chapter 24

There was a soft knocking at Ward's bedroom door. When he answered it Romanov stood there wearing a men's shirt that she had clearly been sleeping in. In her hand was a bottle of Tequila.

"Can't sleep?" he asked

"No."

Ward stood back to let her in. She went straight to his bed, got in and pulled the covers up to her neck.

"What's up Nat?"

"Why does something have to be up?"

"You're half naked in my bed at 12.30am, and you brought a bottle."

"Oh. That."

He put some joggers over the boxers he was wearing and climbed in next to her. She laid with her back to him for what seemed like hours before she turned over to face him, propping her head up on her elbow.

"How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Work with the woman you love everyday, see her get hurt, carry on working and know that she will always be out of reach?"

"Clearly not very well, I nearly killed her last week."

"That doesn't mean anything. He's nearly killed me multiple times. It's when you want to that you should worry."

"What happened Nat?"

"He got shot. It was my fault. I took my eye off..."

"He's a big boy. Master Assassin. He can take care of himself. You got him out and he's still alive, right?"

"Yeah, but"

"There are no buts. If you care for him you need to tell him."

"And you need to take your own advice" Romanov told him with a smile.

There was another knock on the door. Ward looked at Romanov and got up to open it, Romanov went to use the bathroom.

"Skye?!"

"Before you close the door in my face, I want to talk to you."

"At 1.15?"

"Did I wake you?"

"No."

"I want to tell you that it wasn't your fault" She told him cupping his face with her hand.

"Wasn't it?"

"No, I knew better than to push your buttons. Especially in a situation like that."

Skye heard the toilet flush.

"You're not alone are you?" she whispered.

"No. Do you want to come in?"

He stood back and let her into the room, where she immediately saw Romanov coming out of the bathroom. Knowing what their relationship was it didn't seem to bother her.

"I forgot to.. erm.. powder my nose" Romanov said, heading back into the bathroom, knowing that Ward and Skye needed to talk. They sat on the edge of the bed facing each other.

"I hate not talking to you." Skye told him

"I must admit this week has been difficult."

"So why wouldn't you look at me?"

"I was scared I was going to hurt you again."

Skye leaned in to kiss him before laying down, pulling him down onto her kissing him more passionately than ever. There was another knock at the door.

"Seriously?" Skye asked while Ward groaned disappointment and frustration into her hair.

"We also forgot Nat's in the bathroom" He said as he got up to answer the door. Skye sat up on the bed.

"Simmons?"

"Agent Ward, may I come in?"

Bewildered as to why she was there Ward yet again stood back to let someone into his bedroom. She saw Skye sat on the bed. At that point Romanov came out of the bathroom.

"Hey, I've been in there a really long time now, I do hope you guys aren't having, Simmons. What are you doing here?

"I saw Skye knock on Ward's door and he let her in. I just wanted to make sure she wasn't going to get hurt the same way May was."

"Wait, You and May, Ward? I didn't see that one coming!"

"It was really embarrassing when Coulson asked him." Simmons continued, sitting down on the bed with Skye.

"Yeah. May looked like she wanted to kill him when he admitted it! I don't think she realised Coulson had injected him with truth serum"

"I'm going to go and get some ice" Ward announced putting a shirt on.

Instead of going down the hall to get ice, he went to the bar and ordered a large Scotch.

"Couldn't sleep either?" May's voice came from behind him.

"I was asleep, then I wasn't. Now I'm having bed issues."

"Bed issues? What sort of bed issues?"

"The one where I can't fit into it."

"Are you drunk? I'm not following."

"Come and see" offered Ward downing his Scotch. May finished her drink in the same manner and followed him to the elevator. They got off at his floor and he put the card in the lock and let her in.

"May. Melinda May!"

"Come join us"

"We're having a pyjama party. With Tequila"

All three women in Ward's bed seemed to be erring on the side of drunk. Skye was plaiting Simmons' hair and Romanov was trying to teach her drunk Russian. May went back into the hall and gave Ward the key to her room.

"Room 47. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" then she closed the door in his face.

* * *

"Ok. I've got one. I've got one, I have never, never have I had sex with Ward!" Romanov giggled.

May drank her entire shot before Romanov poured her another one.

"You're all trying to get me drunk" she stated in a matter of fact. "And I thought Russians drank Vodka?"

"Not this one!" Romanov answered.

By this point all four women were very drunk and were playing a game of 'I have never, never have I', where someone says something and if you have done it you need to drink a shot.

"My turn!" Simmons hiccupped. "I have never, never have I fallen in love with an agent"

Surprisingly three of them drank their shot. Romanov didn't.

"Wait. What?" Skye asked. "I feel stories here... "

"I was madly in love with one of my lecturers at the academy" Simmons blurted.

"What? You dark horse! All this time we thought you were in love with Fitz!" May said, offering her shot glass for a 'cheers' clink, which Simmons returned.

"He's just a good friend!"

"Mhm."

"Well what about you May? It was Ward wasn't it?"

"No. Ward was more Lust and lots of alcohol. Mine was about five years ago. His name was Michael Tamworth."

"What happened?" Skye asked barely above a whisper.

"She found out he was a spy and put three shots in his chest" Romanov finished for May.

"What?"

"It happens more than you think!"

"Well you're clearly in love with Ward, Skye." Simmons said

"What? No!"

"Whatever. We've seen you together." May added.

"Ok. Fine. He's all I think about. Those lips of his. And those eyes. Oh god those eyes! You totally can't tell him."

"Oh Honey. I'm pretty sure he already knows!" Romanov told her before Simmons asked:

"So you hit on him or he hit on you first"

Skye looked a little sheepish.

"Oh My God! Skye!" Simmons shrieked amid another hiccup as Skye went bright red and mumbled something about Oxford.

"What about you Nat? You didn't drink?"

"Because I have never fallen in love with an agent."

"I have two words for you Natasha Romanov, and it has something to do with whose shirt you're wearing" May said with a devious look in her eye.

"Oh crap!"

"Go on. What?" Skye prompted.

"Clint. Barton." May finished, holding out her glass to Romanov who clinked her glass with May's in defeat and drank up. She filled it up again and tossed the shot back to even the score.

"Who?" asked Skye confused

"He's an agent Nat works closely with. A lot. You met him actually. When we were at Phys Acc."

"Wait. Peaches?"

"Peaches?"

"Ward. Open day exercise. So how did you meet?"

"I got on S.H.I.E.L.D's radar in a bad way and he was sent to kill me. He disobeyed his orders and ended up recruiting me. Fury nearly fired him for it when I was at the Academy though".

"Why?"

"Me and Ward managed to blow the principal's office up! Nearly got us both expelled. He was sent to Sci Acc for a year. They couldn't handle him so they sent him back after six months!"

"Oh my god how did you blow up his office?"

"I thought that was a myth"

"We got bored one night so we dismantled his car and rebuilt it in his office. Except we missed a bit and when he turned the ignition the car blew up. Ward would have probably graduated ahead of me if he hadn't have got caught and took the entire blame. They docked his points. I beat him by half a point."

"Her and Ward are the reason security is so tight at the Phys Acc" May pointed out to Skye.

"We found the training too easy so we got bored and found alternate ways to amuse, I mean train ourselves!"

They fell about the bed laughing.

"Ok Ladies. Truth or dare time. And by that I mean its dare time" Romanov announced. "Skye, I dare you, in the morning, when we all meet to check out, to walk right up to Ward and kiss him in front of everyone"

Skye looked mortified but issued May's Dare.

"May. I dare you to striptease for Fitz when we get back on the 'bus"

"I hate you!" responded May narrowing her eyes at Skye. "Ok. Simmons. I dare you to leave a pair of panties in this, Grant Ward's hotel room. BUT, you have to make sure he finds them."

Simmons looked shocked and was trying to think of a good dare for Romanov.

"Nat. I dare you to use Ward's toothbrush. In front of him."

* * *

Ward awoke early the next morning. He took one look around the room and remembered that he was kicked out of his own room last night! He showered and changed back into the joggers and shirt he had been wearing the night before. He left May's room and caught the elevator back to his room. He opened the door with the key card and went in to find all four women fast asleep in the bed. Ward decided to change his clothes in the bathroom. Just as he was pulling his jeans up the phone rang. He went to get it but May got there first, leaning over Simmons she answered the phone. The phone also woke Romanov up. She got out of the bed and started looking around the room for something.

"Hello?"

"May?"

"Coulson?"


	25. Chapter 25

Coulson had seen May and Ward get out of the elevator. He had seen Ward open his room and let May in. Deciding he didn't want to know the details, he went into his own room and tried to ignore it. In the morning he changed his mind, went to stand outside the room and called to check whether May was still in there, and to let them know what time breakfast was.

"Hello?" was the answer

"May?"

"Coulson?"

"Is that my toothbrush?" he heard Ward shout in the room, then a door slam. Then he heard a thump of someone falling and two different squeals of pain. Deciding he'd heard enough he used his master key card and opened the door. The sight before him was almost one of Chaos.

Ward was stood to the side of the bathroom door wearing what appeared to be nothing but jeans, propped up on the doorframe by his elbow. Romanov was stood in the doorway to the bathroom wearing a man's shirt and her pants, handing him what looked like his toothbrush that she had apparently just been using. May was on the far side of the bed, fully clothed but had obviously slept in them, lying over the torso of Simmons who was closest to the door. Skye was getting up off the floor rubbing the elbow that she had just landed on. May had accidentally kicked her out of the bed when her elbow had slipped and she landed on Simmons, waking her up. When they noticed Coulson everyone froze and looked at him.

"Breakfast is in twenty minutes" he stated, leaving the room.

* * *

Checking out time came and everyone was to meet in the lobby to go back to the 'bus. Ward was stood talking to Fitz as the girls entered. Coulson was checking them all out and was taking all of their key cards to hand in. Skye handed her card to Coulson, and remembering her dare from the night before walked up to Ward and kissed him. She broke away, looked at the confusion in his eyes and walked over to the others. Romanov and May were laughing and Simmons looked like she was about to burst into laughter as well.

Coulson looked at Ward as if to say "I knew it" but Ward simply shrugged his shoulders to indicate he had no idea what that was about.

Back on the 'bus they all gathered in the lounge for Coulson to brief them on their plan for the day.

"Any questions?"

"I have one" Ward admitted

"What is it?"

"Whose are these?" he asked, holding up the pair of panties he had found while sweeping his room to make sure he hadn't left anything. All of the girls looked down, smiling to the floor. All except Simmons, who stood up, walked over to Ward, took her pants back and went to put them in her bunk, while Fitz and Coulson stared at her.

"What the hell is going on?" Coulson asked Ward after he had dismissed everyone. "All the girls in your room, Skye kissing you this morning and Simmons' pants being left in your possession?"

"I have no idea. I swear Coulson. They turned up to my room last night. Nat arrived first with a bottle of Tequila, then Skye, then Simmons. I went to get a drink because they were girl talking and I bumped into May. I let her into my room to show her why I was finding it difficult to sleep; she gave me her room key and shut the door in my face. I slept in May's room. I went back this morning to change."

* * *

"He's in the Lab alone" They told May as the 'bus was flying them back to the village.

"I can't believe you're making me do this."

"It'll be over before you know it."

"Me, Nat and Skye have done ours. Now it's your turn!"

"How far do I have to go?

"To your underwear. Then you can come back up!"

May walked down the stairs to the Lab where Fitz was working on something that looked like a head microphone.

"May, what can I do for you?

"Nothing"

Sky pressed play on the controls for the Lab stereo and 'sexy and I know it' by LMFAO started playing. Fitz looked up from his project and the first thing he noticed was May dancing and unzipping her S.H.I.E.L.D uniform.

"W-what are you doing" he spluttered, eyes popping.

"Just enjoy the ride Fitz" she continued to dance and remove clothes while Fitz, not knowing where to look, looked up at the balcony to see Skye, Romanov and Simmons laughing so uncontrollably that they were barely able to stand.

'Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle yeah' May wiggled her bum and her trousers fell to the floor, she kicked them to the stairs where she had thrown her top, which left her stood in front of Fitz in nothing but her bra and pants. Skye stopped the music and May ran for the stairs, gathered her clothes and bolted up them three at a time. At the top Simmons covered her with a blanket and May used the privacy to put her clothes back on.

Standing just outside his office, Coulson was starting to piece together the strange behaviour of his female agents. They had spent a night drinking together. He knew when Romanov was involved in social drinking there were usually dares to follow. It was one of the 'Legends' that came out of the Academy about her. He smiled because his specialised handpicked team were starting to become more of a 'family'.


	26. Chapter 26

They managed to track the creature to the Api Nampa Conservation area of Nepal. Through analyzing the exo-skeleton Fitz-Simmons had determined that it had come from another planet, possibly the previous year when the convergence occured. If the skin it had shed was big, the creature itself was even bigger. It looked like a scaly purple dinosaur.

"Try talking to it" Simmons suggested as Romanov, Ward and May inched closer to it.

"Do you really think it will understand us?" Ward retorted sacrcastically.

"You never know, the Hulk does"

"The Hulk is human." Romanov reminded her, but decided to give it a go anyway. "My name is Natasha. Do you understand me?"

The creature just snarled and growled at her.

"I think that's a no" May told her, waving at her to back off a little. Ward had crept around to the back of the creature

The creature increased its growling and started advancing on the two women, they both drew their weapons and fired three shots each into its face. The bullets did nothing except aggravate it. It was moving faster and closer to May and Romanov, who had found themselves backed into a cove. Ward shot the creature in the back and ran. It followed him over the brow of the hill. As he ran Fitz threw him a weapon prototype that he had been working on. By the time the rest of the team had caught up to them Ward was using Fitz's new weapon to, not a great effect, but he was certainly holding his own. The weapon was a version of the sword Lady Sif possessed. It had two sides, one or both could be expanded and you could use it as a sword or lethal staff. Ward had both ends out and was parrying the creature's lunges with it. Every now and then Ward got a glancing blow that made the creature bleed, thick, fuchsia blood. He was covered in it.

May remembered she had picked up the air compression device they had used in Peru and threw it to Romanov, who had better access to the creature. Romanov took a lunging forward roll followed by a hand spring and pinned the point of the device into the creatures tail. She knew she would have time to get back to a safe distance, while May yelled at Ward to duck. He did, so did the rest of the team, just to be safe and the device went off.

Instead of knocking the creature out, or away from Ward, the air compressor actually caused the creature to disintegrate into purple ooze. The team scrambled to their feet and saw Ward, standing near the base of their weapon, covered in a mixture of the purple slime and bright pink blood.

He plucked the air compressors base out of the ground, walked over to May and handed it back to her. She was biting her lip trying to suppress laughter.

"I'm going back to shower" was all he said to anyone.

"We want samples of that ooze" Simmons yelled after him.

* * *

Skye was sat on her laptop, working on known Covenant movements and trying to decide whether she could see patterns in them or not. A small plate with a piece of cheesecake appeared by her side with a fork. Skye looked up and saw Romanov putting it there.

"Try it. It's amazing" was all she said before walking off.

Skye picked up the fork and looked at the cheesecake. It had a dark base and looked like it was vanilla. She cut a piece off and put it in her mouth. She wasn't a big fan of cheesecakes, but this was divine. The base was made out of Oreo biscuits and it wasn't vanilla. It was lime. Just the right amount to cut through the richness of the filling. Romanov was right. It was amazing.

Ward came back into the lounge having showered and changed holding a game of twister in his hands.

* * *

"Coulson, Update me." Fury demanded over video conferencing.

"We have dealt with that incident in Nepal and we are back working on finding the Covenant base where they are keeping the weapon."

"Any leads on that?" Fury asked.

"Not yet, Sir. It's still early days though."

*BANG*

"What was that?"

"It sounded like a shot Sir, I told them all to take an hour's break"

"And they shoot each other? Transfer me to the lounge."

Coulson pressed a couple of buttons and Fury's face disappeared from his office. He climbed down the stairs into the lounge and pressed another button. Fury's face reappeared. Just as a shot hit him between the eyes. (It is a very good job that it's a video call)

"I missed. Does this mean I'm out?" Fitz asked.

Coulson saw Fury raise his eyebrows at the scene behind him. He didn't want to turn around, but he had to.

His team were playing Twister. Simmons had volunteered to spin not one, but two boards and Fitz was taking one off her as he had been declared out. Skye, Ward, Romanov and May were all entwining limbs (some were in VERY suggestive places), but the twist was, the first spin told them a weapon they had to use and a colour they had to target. These targets were stuck around the room with various knife marks and bullet holes (they weren't using real bullets they were using Icers – they didn't want to depressurise the plane again).

"Ok, May. Knife, Blue then right hand red."

May, who was upside down threw the knife at the blue target and missed by a couple of inches.

"May, you missed. You're out"

Coulson and Fury were watching this with mild horror.

"What do you all think you're doing?" Fury asked the room at large. No one had noticed that Coulson had transferred Fury's video feed to the Lounge and was also stood watching them.

"Training, Sir" Romanov replied after a minute, while extracting her left leg before wrapping it around Ward's waist and placing it on Yellow.

"Training?" Fury repeated aghast "Coulson, I am feeling the need to come out there and supervise you and your team."

"Do what you feel is necessary Director." Coulson responded, slightly aghast.

Director Fury hung up on him.

Coulson turned back to the game, he wasn't a stickler like most people thought, and watching his agents 'train' in this manner proved to be quite amusing. As long as the plane was repaired to the standard it was before they started.

Something wasn't quite right though. May was out having missed her shot, but Skye was still in. He didn't think she would be that flexible nor have that much accuracy, especially in contorted positions. Skye threw a knife at Red and it hit. Dead on. He reasoned that Ward must have taught her well in the last few weeks. She moved her required hand, and that's when he saw it.

Ward was helping her cheat.

Skye was resting the smallest part of her body on his, not enough that it was obvious but enough to keep her in the game.

The plane hit a terrible patch of turbulence and like a card tower, Romanov, Ward and Skye crashed to the floor in a mass of limbs.

"I think that's enough downtime. Let's get back to work before Fury joins us!" Coulson recommended.


	27. Chapter 27

"Director Fury. Welcome aboard" Coulson welcomed him onto the bus.

"I felt it was necessary. You told me you could handle them both together."

"Yes, Sir. I actually left them in the lounge playing Battleship."

Fury raised his eyebrows at Coulson and followed him to the lounge. As soon as Coulson opened the door from the access chamber he was forced to close it quickly by some sort of dart. He waited a couple of seconds before trying again.

"I thought you said they were playing Battleship" Fury said to him.

"They were."

The two men entered the lounge to find the two agents, were in fact playing battleship. They were simply guessing the others co-ordinates using darts instead of pins on a board. When they saw Fury they swiftly went their different ways. Romanov went to the cockpit to talk May and Ward went to find Skye to train.

"Handling them, eh Coulson?"

* * *

"Fury's on board then" May asked Romanov as she entered the cockpit.

"Yeah"

"What were you two doing?"

"Battleship Darts"

"Which is why you have come to hide in here?"

"Yep."

"Have we figured out why he's here yet?"

"I don't think he thinks Coulson can handle us"

* * *

"So, Fury's here to watch you and Nat?" Skye asked Ward as she threw a punch at him that he deflected.

"Guess so." He said, returning the punch. Skye was getting better at hand to hand combat.

"You two are a handful" She said trying to execute a roundhouse kick, but falling flat on her butt.

"Really? Why do you say that?" Ward asked her, helping her up.

"I saw you put that Lizard on Simmons' pack" she replied with a smile.

"Ready?"

"Ready" They started sparring again. They trained for another hour before Ward, glancing through the window, noticed something on the board they were using to track Covenant movements. This lapse in concentration was enough for Skye to strike him on the face using a jab kick, knocking him to the ground.

"YES!" Skye exclaimed. This was the first time she had managed this.

Fitz and Simmons, who were working looked through the window, say Skye cheering and Ward on the ground, minor cut to his cheek. They looked at each other in mild amusement.

"There is no way you would have done that if I hadn't have noticed..." Ward started before trailing off; taking the hand Skye was offering him and instead of allowing her to pull him up, he pulled her down.

"Gaaahhh" Skye screamed as she fell. When she was on the floor beside Ward she continued "noticed what?"

He moved her into the correct position to see it. When she did she gasped.

The pins that they had used to identify the origins of attacks were in one colour and they made an inverted pentagram, the pins used to identify the places attacked were in a different colour, also making an inverted pentagram, perfectly outlining the first. The symbol of the covenant. The pair scrambled to their feet and headed into the lab. They had spread the map of the world (that they were using as the board) over the entire wall of the plane, so the corners could only be reached using a stepladder. Skye grabbed some string and her and Ward, taking a different colour string each, set to work.

* * *

Coulson and Fury were watching the lab cameras. They had seen Skye and Ward sparring through the glass, they had seen her kick him, seen him fall and pull her down too. They also saw them scrabble to their feet and run into the Lab and grab the string.

"Maybe it wasn't Romanov and Ward I needed to worry about with Coulson." Fury thought as he and Coulson raced to the Lab to stop Skye and Ward creating carnage. When they got there though, there were two brightly coloured, clear as day, inverted pentagrams staring at them.

"The Covenant" Coulson said, recognising the symbol from the file Romanov had obtained.


	28. Chapter 28

"I think we should concentrate on this area" Skye pointed out.

"I don't think it will be there, they must know we will have figured it out by now." Simmons countered

"I agree." Fitz added.

After the realisation that they were looking at a more well organised group than they believed, they were discussing, albeit heatedly, their plans now that they had discovered the pentagram.

Ward was reviewing the board, turned around walked to the table that they were all stood around.

"I agree with Skye. It's a place to start looking." He told them, voice emotionless, glancing to Romanov as he said it.

"Me too." She agreed before adding "If the Covenant feels strongly enough about ending the world that they use two perfect pentagrams as their group identification symbol, then they may just be stupid enough to use the meaning of the pentagram to its fullest extent. That is, the sixth point is the most magical"

"Sixth point?" Simmons asked.

"Yeah, a pentagram only has five points, hence why it's called a p-e-n-t-agram." Fitz told her.

"Nat has a point. Ancient worshippers of the pentagram believed that it signified all of the elements of the world, earth, fire, water and all that. They believed the exact centre of the pentagram; it's sixth, hidden, point was the most powerful one. It was the centre of love and happiness. They also believed that if you invert a pentagram then you get the exact opposite. Satanic rule and pure evil." Coulson explained to the very confused Lab agents.

"Let's start there then." Fury ordered.

* * *

For the next few days, the team spent looking at Satellite footage from the area that they had identified as 'suspicious'.

"I told you this is pointless. These feeds are from weeks ago. They could have moved bases by now." Simmons cried, frustrated.

"Or"

"Or what, Skye?"

"They crashed the 'bus. If they think we are all dead then they may have moved their base there, knowing we weren't tracking them anymore."

"Without live feeds or a fly by, which would alert them to the fact that we survived, we have nothing."

"So we need to ask Director Fury for live satellite access." Skye concluded.

"Good luck asking him" Simmons told her.

* * *

Skye knocked on Coulson's door as Fury had taken to occupying it.

"Yes"

"Director Fury, Sir. We would like to know if we could task a satellite for live surveillance on the area. The feeds we have aren't giving us anything, but they could still be there."

Fury looked at Coulson, who simply nodded his agreement, and Fury made the call.

* * *

The live satellite images were the breakthrough they needed. They identified a village miles away from anywhere, located at the epicentre of the pentagram that looked like it had suspicious activity. Armed guards, black SUV's arriving in the dark to remain camouflaged, and they could see no villagers. They spent a week surveilling the village before they saw a man arrive carrying a large, grey case. He went into one of the buildings and when he left ,the case was not with him.

"That could be the weapon" Fitz told Fury at a progress briefing.

"What's access like for a tactical entry?"

"There are guards in the building. There aren't any guards on the street unless there's a delivery" May reported.

"There isn't a way in." Simmons said.

"Find me one. Coulson. I want to talk to you."

* * *

An hour later they were still looking for a tactical entry point. They had already decided Ward and Romanov were to be the ones to infiltrate the building. May was needed to fly the 'bus, Fitz and Simmons weren't field agents and Skye was too inexperienced with a mission like this.

"There's no access points to the building" Fitz repeated for, what felt like the hundredth time

"There's gotta be one somewhere?" Skye said.

"Go back to that alley" Ward commanded. Fitz shifted the position of the satellite to the alley Ward requested. "There's a door there."

"With booby traps I expect, which leaves us with the same problem. There's no way in" countered Simmons.

"That's the way in" Romanov pointed out, knowing exactly what Ward was meaning. "You're right. Completely crazy, but right!"

"But, but..." Simmons started to protest.

"If it's the only way in, it's the only way in. There are no 'buts' about it."

"You guys got any ideas yet?" Fury asked entering the room with Coulson.

"One." Ward said

"It's crazy. You'll both be killed!" Skye protested.

"The weapon is worth that risk. If we do get out of there alive then the world will be safer." He replied, looking at her directly in the eye, trying to tell her silently that he would be ok, which didn't go unnoticed by Fury.

Coulson looked at the two Agents, he saw the look of determination in them and knew there was no point arguing.

"What's the plan?"

"Go in through the front door, get the package and leave"

"Go get ready. Full TAC gear." We'll be there in half an hour" Fury ordered.

Romanov and Ward went to get changed. S.H.I.E.L.D suits, weapon belts containing everything a super spy needs to infiltrate a hostile camp and parachutes.

"Coulson, they're gonna get killed" Skye pleaded.

"More than likely. Although they obviously have more details that they have come up with that we don't know about. But they are the best at this." He replied, worried.

"We can keep an eye on them." Simmons said with hope, trying to calm Skye down, knowing how she must be feeling. "We've been developing these"

She handed Coulson and Fury head microphones like they had used at the academy. "We added vital statistic monitors, so we can view their heart rate and blood pressure."

"You did all of this in here?" Fury asked looking around the Lab.

"Yes, Sir"

Fury nodded his approval. Skye looked through the glass to the cargo hold where Ward and Romanov were making sure that their weapon holsters were secure. She also saw Romanov flip a coin. It was obvious by their reaction, Ward lost. She didn't know what it meant, but she felt more worried than ever.


	29. Chapter 29

As they came back into the room Coulson had Fitz-Simmons fit the communication devices to Ward and Romanov. Immediately videos of Fitz and Simmons appeared on monitors at the back of the lab, alongside the agents' heart rates and blood pressure. If they were nervous about what they were about to do they weren't showing it.

"Black Widow, comms check" Fury demanded.

"One two, one two."

"Blue Eyes, comms"

"I hate it when you call me that."

"Would you prefer twinkle toes? Yeah, I heard" Fury countered, raising his eyebrows at Ward.

"Five minutes to drop zone"

The cargo door was opened and Ward and Romanov stood waiting to jump.

"Blue eyes?" Fitz mouthed to Simmons puzzled. She simply shrugged back confused.

"Five, four, three, two, one, go, go, go."

They jumped and May continued to fly the plane to the landing site a few miles away.

Skye was sat on the lab table watching Ward's descent on the monitor. Coulson noticed she was biting her nails and rocking backwards and forwards. He went to sit beside her and put his hand gently on her leg.

"I know you love him. He'll be ok. He's done crazier things than this." He tried to reassure her.

"W-w-w-what?" Skye stuttered, looking sideways at Coulson, not realising he knew.

"Why don't you recheck the satellites and see if there's any other way in, just in case?"

* * *

Ward and Romanov landed, disengaged their parachutes and crept the 500m to their target building.

"We've landed and are approaching the building" Romanov whispered into her microphone.

"Stay safe, engaging radio silence from this end" came the reply.

They reached the door they had identified as their entry point and stood either side of it.

"Reached the door, checking for booby traps" Ward said, also whispering. He opened the door a crack and ran his hands slowly and methodically around the edge of the door, checking for hidden wires or anything that could kill them.

"Door clear, proceeding to inside."

They didn't make it very far before all hell broke loose. Ward had seen the monitor that detected when the door had been opened, but as they had no other way in he ignored it. The sensor had alerted all Covenant agents within the building to the breach. Soon Romanov and Ward were backed into a corner faced with at least 30 opponents.

"Party time!" Romanov said smiling.

As they were rushed by members of the Covenant they defended themselves fiercely. They had nearly made it out of there without a scratch when someone said:

"Move and she dies."

Ward stopped fighting and turned to look in the direction of the voice. He saw Romanov knelt on the floor, in front of a big, burly man with a gun pointed to the back of her head.

"Drop your weapons and put your hands in front of you."

Ward put down the gun he had been using and did as he was told. They were swiftly bound using rope and everything went black.

* * *

"What happened?" Fury was shouting. Fitz-Simmons started typing away at the keyboards in front of them trying to get the video feeds back.

"The picture failed." Simmons said in a panic.

"We're trying to get it back." Fitz pointed out.

"Well are they alright?" Coulson asked.

"They both appear to be still alive, but, based on these readings, neither of them have broken a sweat yet." Simmons answered a little confused.

"I don't get it? They wouldn't give up like that. I've seen them both fight and they are better than that." Skye questioned.

Coulson suddenly realised what their plan had been all along. "They intended to get caught. It was the only way into the building. The door must have been rigged to alert the members to the breach."

"Nat was right. That was a crazy plan."

* * *

Ten minutes the video feed returned almost as suddenly as it had disappeared. Ward could clearly be seen strung to the ceiling by his wrists from Romanov's feed and visa-versa.

"Damn"

Everyone looked at May.

"Those are double hand, hangman's knots. They are designed so that the more you struggle the tighter they get. Unless you have a knife they can't be untied."

A deep voice filled the Lab, silencing it's occupants.

"One of you will tell me who you work for, the other will die. You have five minutes to decide."


	30. Chapter 30

"I can't untie these knots. Can you?"

Ward struggled with his restraints. Then he stopped and looked at the knot focussing all of his attention on the knot that was now cutting into his flesh.

"Too tight, we need a knife."

"Where do you suppose we are going to get one?"

"Hey! Hey! I'm ready to talk now!" He shouted at the top of his voice.

A guard came in and walked over to Ward, muttering something that sounded a lot like 'amateurs'.

"So, talk." He said.

"I can't tell you if she can hear, you'll have to come closer"

The guard moved closer to Ward. He realised that it was a mistake, but not before Ward had wrapped his thighs around the guard's head and was using his feet to dislodge the knife from his hip. He tried to flick it to Romanov, but it fell too short and landed on the ground with a clatter.

The guard managed to get out of Ward's vice grip and stand up.

* * *

In the Lab they saw one, two, three blows connect with Ward's face (they chose to watch it on Romanov's feed. Wards was too horrifying!). Then they saw the guard take off his belt, move around the back of Ward and start hitting him with it. As they heard the gasps of pain escape Ward's mouth, alongside the peak in his pulse, silent tears started rolling down Skye's face. Simmons took her hand, fighting tears herself.

"Enough." Came an order from the man with the deep voice. "Tie his legs and this won't happen again. So who do you work for?"

Ward spat blood into the man's face. Another blow and then silence.

* * *

"Ward? You ok?"

"Been better."

"You've looked worse if that helps?"

"No". Ward saw the knife still lying there "We got a knife!"

"Yeah. One small problem, it's lying on the middle of the floor, genius!"

"Hang on!"

Ward concentrated on the knife. He moved it slowly to the spot where his hands were tied and started sawing away at them.

* * *

They saw the knife sawing away at Ward's restraints. It seemed to be moving on it's own.

"Gahh!" He exclaimed.

"What did you do?"

"Missed the rope" He replied, looking directly at Romanov, and as a result, right into her camera, with those bright blue eyes.

"Woah! How'd he do that?" May asked, jumping back a little.

"That's impossible" Simmons exclaimed.

"Well that explains his code name" Was all Coulson could remark. The only people not shocked by this were Director Fury and Skye.

"You know?" He asked her.

"He told me under truth serum Coulson injected him with."

"Erm... guys. Know what?"

"Agent Ward is telekinetic" Fury announced to a stunned group of people. "He has the ability to move objects using his mind, but doing so changes the colour of his eyes. It was one skill he could never master, but it seems he's been practising. It's what put him on S.H.I.E.L.D's radar, and subsequently, threat watch."

"It's what we have been working on for the last few months in the workout room." Skye admitted looking at Coulson. "It's why the knives were flying around so much and why that one nearly killed Fitz and Simmons." She looked at May and continued "It's how he hit you with a fire extinguisher, breaking your jaw."

They saw Ward pull the last remaining strand of rope apart and drop to the floor. He fell over, due to the fact that his feet were now bound. He gathered up the knife and started hacking away at his feet restraints. Once he was free he grabbed the only chair in the room and positioned it next to Romanov so he could set her free.

He was a couple of inches too short, so he stood with one foot on the arm of the chair and one on the back, which made the chair balance on one leg. This gave him the crucial height he needed to free her.

The rest of the team were watching impressed. No one had ever seen Ward work like this. They knew he was good, that there were legends about him at the academy, banners of him and Romanov everywhere and that he was ranked one of the top field agents at S.H.I.E.L.D, but they never knew he was _this_ good.

* * *

Romanov used the knife to cut the bottom off Ward's shirt and used it to cover the wound to his wrist. It wasn't too deep but would probably require a stitch or two.

They scanned around the room looking for a way to escape, other than the locked door, when Romanov noticed something in the corner. A grey, steel box. She tapped Ward on the shoulder and they went to go have a look. Once they had opened the box they had realised their captors had locked them in a room with the very item they had gone in to take.

It was small, flat and round, about the size of a coffee mug. Deciding it would be safer to leave the case and take the weapon, Romanov put it in her jumpsuit. As she went to close the lid, Ward stopped her. He took a bang flash pellet out of his pocket, pulled the pin and slotted it into the empty embedded space of the box. Once they opened the box it would blow up!

"Right. Time to go"

"Good idea!"

They heard the key in the door and saw the handle turn, so they moved backwards into the shadows. The guard that had beaten Ward returned to the room. He noticed that the prisoners were gone and turned around to shout for backup, only to find his mouth covered from behind by Ward, while Romanov bound him using the same knots that had been used on them. They removed his weapons and put the last bit of cloth that Romanov had cut from Ward's shirt into his mouth before gagging him with some more rope and hoisting him into the air.

"Who's the amateur now?" Ward asked, turning for the door.


	31. Chapter 31

Ward and Romanov crept their way down the corridor. They found an empty, unlocked room and hid in it to formulate a plan to escape.

"We could go back out the front door?" Ward suggested.

"Do you think we'd make it?"

"No. Roof?"

"That's what I was thinking."

"And then what?"

"You're not going to like it." She replied.

Silently they made their way to the stairs. Even though they had sacks over their heads they remembered each step they had taken to get to the room where they held captive, so finding the stairs was relatively easy. Guns raised, they climbed the stairs until they reached the door marked 'Roof Access'. They checked the door for trip wires, sensors and explosives. It was clean. They opened it and found themselves in the cool evening air. They walked to the edge of the building to assess their options.

*BOOM*

They looked at each other. Clearly they had limited time before a full scale hunt was launched for them. Ward looked at a nearby building and started running towards it. Romanov followed. When they got to the edge they jumped.

Back in the lab they watched as Ward landed the jump with a perfectly executed forward roll, while Romanov performed a handspring.

They continued to run towards the opposite ledge. The size of the gap stopped them in their tracks. Looking for an escape route, Romanov saw an open window in a building about five from where they were. Then she saw a way over the gap.

* * *

"Their heart rates are increasing"

"They are running for their lives. What else do you expect?

"Oh yes. That explains it!"

They saw Romanov and Ward back up to the opposite side of the building, heard shouts from Covenant agents down their microphones and saw the two of them run for the gap.

Suddenly Ward's heart rate spiked and a couple of beats later it flatlined. His video feed was on its side on the roof they had just landed on. It didn't move. Romanov's camera showed her running for the next gap.

"No,no,no. He can't be dead. It's not possible" Fitz was saying as his fingers flew over the equipment controls. Skye collapsed to the floor, her tears no longer silent. Simmons slid down next to her and the tears she had been holding back also started rolling. Coulson was in shock. His best agent. Dead. May went to vent her frustration on the punchbag.

Suddenly they noticed anomalies on Romanov's feed. Her heart rate was going beserk and from the video they could tell someone had caught her, and by the looks of it were trying to throw her off the roof.

Then her heart rate flat lined. A few seconds later the feed hit the floor and stopped working too.


	32. Chapter 32

**A/N: Seriously. Hands up who thought I would actually kill off both of Fury's poster people?**

What actually happened was, during his jump over the gap; Ward took a bullet to his lower back. He landed awkwardly and the microphone mechanism fixed to his ear fell off and broke. Now running for his life he ignored the pain and continued after Romanov. When they landed on the next building Covenant agents that had seen some of their escape plan had made it to that rooftop. Engaged in hand to hand combat, Romanov's feed had been ripped from her and thrown over the edge.

The ten Covenant agents were soon unconscious, dead or otherwise tied up, allowing Romanov and Ward to continue their building hopping escape. When they reached the last jump they paused to take in their options. There was a horizontal bar that they could use to swing into the window. For Romanov, it was easy. She jumped, her supple body twisting perfectly and as she let go of the bar, she landed feet first through the open window.

For Ward, it was a little more difficult. He was a lot bigger, heavier and not as supple as Romanov. He also had a bullet in his back. He jumped, grabbed the pole and swung. The pain hit him like a thousand bricks. It felt like his back was on fire. It was enough to alter his trajectory. When he let go of the pole he spun and all he could do was grab hold of the windowsill to stop himself hitting the ground, while trying not to pass out.

Romanov soon pulled him into the stairwell, and they made their way carefully down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs was a convenience store, selling everything from band aids to soldering irons. Romanov grabbed a soldering iron, some batteries to power it, matches and a pair of tweezers on the way to the door to check to see where they were on the ground. Where they were was in the middle of the village.

They needed to find cover. Fast.

After a few mad dashes across the street they found the perfect cover, where they could stop and Romanov could treat Ward's wound. She tore his shirt further to expose the it, turned the soldering iron on and used the matches the sterilise the tweezers the best she could before digging around in Ward's back to find the bullet. She found it and pulled it out. To stop the bleeding she cauterised all of the blood vessels from the heat of the soldering iron. 'Bodge it' surgery they had called it at the academy. But if it meant that they both got out alive they didn't care.

"You ok?"

"Yeah. Let's get back to the 'bus."

By now it was completely dark, but they still kept to the shadows for cover. Once they were out of the village they relaxed a little and began the five mile trek back.

* * *

"May, be careful. You saw what these guys did to Romanov and Ward." Fury was telling her as she was preparing to make her assault on the Covenant hideout. They were making plans and plan b's, c's and d's. The rest of the team were still in shock from witnessing their colleagues deaths.

A beeping sound broke the grief. It was the intruder alert system. Switching to thermal sensors they could see two hostiles approaching the 'bus at a slow, cautious rate.

Coulson, May and Fury took up a position behind vehicles and opened the cargo door. Fitz-Simmons and Skye hid behind Lola.

As the hostiles got nearer the tension grew. Were these Covenant agents, told the location of the base of operations by Ward or Romanov before they died?

Skye was watching May. She wondered if she would ever be as talented in combat as her, especially without Ward. Then she saw it: May lowered her weapon.

"Skye. No!" Simmons yelled as she stood up and stepped out from behind Lola. When Simmons saw Skye was crying again she wondered if she was going to do something stupid. Then she noticed something else. Skye was smiling. So she took the gamble and went to stand by her side. What she saw took her breath away.

Ward and Romanov walking straight at the cargo doors of the plane.

Skye and Simmons looked at each other and ran straight for Ward. They jumped on him and hugged him with everything they had, all the emotion and grief they had felt in the last couple of hours.

Ward, barely able to stand carrying his own weight, collapsed backwards into the sand with the two girls on top of him, still hugging him dearly. Coulson enveloped Romanov in a big hug and helped her inside. Fury, Fitz and May went to help pick Skye, Simmons and Ward off the floor.

While Ward and Romanov were giving a report on what happened, Simmons and Coulson were evaluating the numerous cut and bruises on the two agents, stitching up the deeper ones and applying antiseptic cream to the not so deep ones.

Coulson asked Ward to let him look at his back, after all they had seen him get whipped. It was blue and mottled and where he had been shot was covered in thick red blood.

As a precaution both agents were taken to Bethesda Naval Hospital. Ward got the news that the bullet and subsequent exertion had torn a muscle in his back. He would be out of action for months.

As the doctor left his treatment room Skye slipped in. In her hands she held an ice pack. She gently pressed it to Ward's bruised face. As a precaution the hospital had put Ward's arm in a sling that pinned it to his body. Being able to move it would not allow the damaged muscle to heal as effectively. He flinched and grabbed her hand with his free one.

"I honestly thought I'd lost my SO"

"Sorry to disappoint you. I'm still here. I'm going to be on the injured list for a while but I'm still here, and it appears the entire team now know my secret."

"Fury told them when you used the knife to cut your hands free. I just confirmed that we'd been working on it. Are you mad?"

"No. It was going to happen eventually. I should have told them myself."

"Don't beat yourself up over it. They aren't mad at you. They all now know you're certifiably crazy though"

"Like they never suspected that! What do you think? Am I crazy?"

"Yes, but I love you for it!" She told him before leaning in for a kiss.


	33. Chapter 33

Fury gave the team a week off. After all, they earned it. So they headed for the beach.

The sun was setting and Romanov and May were playing beach tennis, Coulson was laid reading and Fitz-Simmons was trying to drown each other in the sea. Ward and Sky walked, hand in hand along the shoreline.

"So where do we go from here?" Skye asked him.

"Anywhere you want to" he replied with a grin. She playfully hit him on his shoulder.

"I meant with us"

"I know what you meant. It's safe to say the team know how we feel about each other, I actually think they've know longer than we have"

"What about the rules?"

"Rules changed when we saved the world"

"What?"

"Fury told me after we got back. I don't know what happened to make him change his mind but, right now, I don't care. I'm just happy he did. I love you Skye."

And with the sunset on the beach Ward used his good hand to pull Skye closer and kiss her.

By the time they made it back to their camp it was dark. Someone had lit a fire and the team were making smores and throwing marshmallows at each other. Ward and Skye settled into the gap in the circle and joined in, well Skye joined in. Ward couldn't with one hand so Skye made the smores and fed them to him.

"Ghost story?" Fitz asked, moving closer to the fire to illuminate his face.

Everyone agreed and Fitz started his story.

The team spent an amazing week camping on the beach and relaxing.

For after all, Tahiti is a magical place!

* * *

**A/N: I am sorry to say that this is the end of this fanfic. Thank you to all of the followers and reviewers that have stuck with me to the end :p**

**Virtual chocolate chip cookies to whoever tells me what their favourite part is!**

**Even better offer... Virtual Oreo and Lime cheesecake to whoever correctly guesses what the coin toss decided! and what Coulson and Fury talked about!**

**Turns out my 'short' story turned out longer than my dissertation! If you want me to write another Agent's of S.H.I.E.L.D fanfic to carry on from this then toss me some ideas and I will play around with them!**

**For anyone curious about the sequel. It's going to be called 'Interns'**


End file.
